Bill Pulled to Give Norton and Allies TIme to Defeat Gun Amendments (3/3/09)

Bill Pulled To Give Norton and Allies Time to Defeat Gun Amendments

March 3, 2009

WASHINGTON, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) was relieved to announce that the District of Columbia House Voting Rights bill was pulled from the Rules Committee today because two gun amendments and a number of others were offered at the last minute for the Rules Committee hearing that had been scheduled for 5:00 p.m. Norton expressed her deep concern to Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier, and later discussed strategy with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. She is grateful to the leadership for pulling the bill from the Rules Committee, "to spare me from having to formally request that it be pulled from the House floor, had it proceeded so quickly that these gun amendments had somehow been possible," Norton said. She added that she does not believe the bill will be ready this week.

Norton also thanked Ilir Zerka and DC Vote members and the 160-member Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), which came to see her today concerning the amendments, which they too find unacceptable. The LCCR, like the National Rifle Association (NRA), has "scored the rule, marking the first time the LCCR has ever scored a rule," Norton said. She said the LCCR's scoring sends a "dead serious message to Democratic and Republican Members about the seriousness of killing a civil rights bill with a gun amendment." Norton also said she thinks this delay was "entirely necessary in order to do the complicated work in both strategy and contacting Democratic members," but she still expects the bill to proceed shortly.

For details, please see Norton's earlier release from today: "Norton Headed for Rules Committee Today as Republicans Pile on Gun Amendments and Seek Others"