D.C.’s 2013 Gains on Statehood, Home Rule and Economic Development, and Norton’s New Powerful Subcommittee Role, Boost Optimism for City’s 2014 Agenda

Contents

• Introduction
• Norton Ready for Two Posts of Major Importance to the District of Columbia
• Progress in Making D.C. Equal and Self-Governing
• Significant Public Safety Measures Achieved
• Getting Equal Treatment and Insisting on Basic Fairness
• Fighting for Federal Employees and Low-Wage Federal Contract Workers
• Norton in the Neighborhoods
• Bringing Federal Parks and Outdoor Areas in D.C. to Their Full Potential

Introduction

Gains for D.C. in 2013, despite the dismal 113^th Congress, have boosted the optimism of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) for 2014. This year was a low point for the administration and the Congress, with only 72 bills expected to be signed into law this session, making the 113^th Congress the most ineffective in the nation's history, according to congressional data. Nevertheless, Norton continued to make tangible progress for the District of Columbia in the Tea Party-controlled House of Representatives, which was responsible for most of the obstruction, by finding Republican allies and working with Senate Democrats. Most members, particularly of the minority party, at best, co-sponsor bills, but of the 72 bills passed by both the House and the Senate and expected to be signed into law, three were sponsored by Norton, with a fourth on which she took the lead. This legislation was vital to the District – a bill to allow the District to immediately fill a vacancy of its Chief Financial Officer (CFO); a bill to allow the District to increase the salary of the CFO, which was necessary to recruit and retain appropriate candidates for this unique and powerful position; a bill to name the new U.S. Coast Guard headquarters; and, the fourth bill, to reauthorize the U.S. Parole Commission (USPC) for five years, its longest authorization period yet, a matter of great importance to the District because the USPC has jurisdiction over D.C. Code felons.

Norton was unanimously elected by Democrats on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as Ranking Member of the Committee's Highways and Transit Subcommittee, the largest and most important of its subcommittees. The Subcommittee is responsible for policy and for the billions of dollars that fund the nation's highways, bridges and transit, including Metro.

In the most important breakthrough for home rule of the year, following the federal government shutdown, Norton's efforts and negotiations will keep the District government open all of fiscal year 2014 and funded at fiscal year 2014 levels, while the federal government is operating at fiscal year 2013 levels and only until January 15. This was a breakthrough year for budget autonomy. Norton not only protected the city's budget autonomy referendum from congressional interference, but she secured language from the president for budget autonomy in his fiscal year 2014 budget and got budget autonomy included in the pending Senate Appropriations Committee-passed fiscal year 2014 D.C. Appropriations bill. Although House Republicans again introduced bills to violate the city's home rule, Norton fought all of them off and, instead, expanded and strengthened D.C.'s self-governance. She also got D.C. significant new equal treatment with the states and won new support for D.C. statehood.

Norton continued strong work in committee, maintaining her seniority on the Economic Development Subcommittee and moving important economic development projects to fruition. She maintained presidential support for D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant program, even persuading the president to include a $5 million increase in funding for the program in fiscal year 2014, as well as for funding for the continued construction of the Department of Homeland Security headquarters complex at the St. Elizabeths West Campus in Ward 8 and for the East Campus, owned by the District. Norton made noteworthy advances in public safety this year, and led the effort that eliminated exorbitant phone rates for prisoners and their families.

Norton Ready for Two Posts of Major Importance to the District of Columbia

Norton's new Subcommittee Leadership Post: A Prime Position to Bring Transportation Benefits to the District

Norton's new post as the Ranking Member of the Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee's Highways and Transit Subcommittee will give her and the District a lead seat at the table as the subcommittee drafts a new surface transportation reauthorization bill next year. She now has jurisdiction over Metro, streetcars, buses and other surface transportation in addition to highways, bridges, roads and infrastructure development. To prepare for the surface transportation reauthorization bill, Norton brought in six top industry experts for a dialogue with committee Democrats to increase understanding of the emerging issues surrounding surface transportation throughout the country. As a longtime proponent of protecting the environment, Norton also will use the reauthorization bill to provide for greener transportation and greater use of technology to reduce congestion. In November, she test drove an electric car to learn more about new all-electric transportation technology, which she believes can be the wave of the near-future.

Economic Development Subcommittee Benefits to Continue for D.C.

Norton was able to maintain momentum for her career-long priority on economic development in D.C. by continuing her service as a senior member of the T&I Committee's Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management. The subcommittee has enabled Norton to develop two new neighborhoods in the District – NoMa and Capitol Riverfront, and to begin the revitalization of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Ward 8, which is already benefitting from the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security complex under construction.

Norton Opens Three of Her Major Economic Development Projects

New Coast Guard Headquarters, the First in Department of Homeland Security Complex, Opens

After Norton secured the initial $1.4 billion for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters construction and guiding congressional oversight of construction, she took D.C. residents on a preview tour this year of the 1.1-million-sqaure-foot U.S. Coast Guard headquarters on the St. Elizabeths West Campus, just before cutting the ribbon. Civilian and military employees have now moved into the state-of-the-art building. The president also signed Norton's bill to name the new U.S. Coast Guard headquarters the "Douglas A. Munro Coast Guard Headquarters Building," for the Coast Guard's only Medal of Honor recipient.

The Coast Guard headquarters construction was a job creator for D.C. and a bonus for D.C. businesses. Although federal construction cannot give preference to local residents for jobs, Norton's oversight and vigorous outreach resulted in D.C. residents comprising an average of 22 percent of workers on the project, even though D.C. has only 10 percent of the region's population. Norton will hold a job fair at the headquarters in 2014. At least 26 small businesses won contracts during headquarters construction, half of them District businesses.

Norton was successful in her request to the President to include $367,031,000 in his fiscal year 2014 for continued DHS construction budget on the St. Elizabeths West Campus. Also included in the President's fiscal year 2014 budget is Norton's request for $9.8 million for D.C. to jumpstart infrastructure improvements at the St. Elizabeths East Campus, owned by the city, but where another DHS building will be built, which will be an invaluable anchor for development on the D.C.-owned side of St. Elizabeths. The federal development has already brought significant benefits to D.C. On the strength of the DHS location on the West Campus, D.C. has secured commitments from major technology companies that want to be near the DHS headquarters. The District has established the Gateway Pavilion, a multi-purpose outdoor structure, to accommodate the 4,000 Coast Guard employees on site in advance of the mixed-use development that is likely to follow the 14,000 federal employees due to be housed in several buildings at St. Elizabeths.

Union Station Bus Deck

After bringing intercity buses inside Union Station in 2010, Norton cut the ribbon in September on a new Union Station bus deck. The new bus station takes residents out of the elements and makes Union Station truly intermodal.

Old Post Office Building

Norton's 15-year effort to get the General Services Administration (GSA) to redevelop the historic Old Post Office (OPO) building and annex bore fruit in June when GSA reached terms with the Trump Organization on a 60-year lease to redevelop and manage the iconic structure as a luxury hotel, culminating with September's lease signing. In 2008, with bipartisan support, Norton's Old Post Office Development Act passed, requiring the GSA to proceed with redevelopment. Norton is working with Ivanka Trump, who is the lead developer, on a win-win for the federal government and the District of Columbia, which will both benefit handsomely. The District will receive $100 million in tax revenue over a 10-year period, and the project will yield 700 construction jobs and 300 permanent jobs.

Stepping in to Keep D.C. Economic Development on Track

Continuing her efforts to ensure that GSA properties benefit the District as well as the federal government, Norton mounted an aggressive effort against underutilized GSA properties, which waste valuable space and taxpayer money. At a hearing of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's Government Operations Subcommittee she criticized GSA leaving vacant a large and reliable GSA property at 49 L St. SE, near M St. SE, where a Norton bill has led to the development of the Yards at Capitol Riverfront. After the hearing, GSA decided to sell the property, which pleased the nearby community, which had advanced its own sophisticated development proposal for the property. Norton also wrote GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini pressing for a specific plan to either use the valuable but long-vacant Webster School in downtown Washington for a new government tenant or to sell it. In response, the GSA committed to a plan of action for the property by early 2014. Norton has taken similar action with properties in the SW Ecodistrict and Federal Triangle South.

DC TAG: The City's Best Workforce Development Program

In spite of the economy, D.C. students have applied and qualified for the District of Columbia Tuition Assistance Grant (DCTAG) program in record numbers. DCTAG felt the bite of sequestration, but every student who qualified under the law received DCTAG funding. Fortunately, the President's fiscal year 2014 budget requested $35 million for DCTAG, a $5 million increase; every Republican and Democratic president since the Norton bill was enacted in 1999 has included it in his budget. DCTAG, which has doubled college attendance among students from the District, provides up to $10,000 annually toward the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition at public four-year colleges and universities, and up to $2,500 annually toward tuition at private colleges in the D.C. region, Historically Black Colleges and Universities nationwide, and two-year colleges.

D.C. Tax Incentives: Work Still to Do

To continue the stabilization and reinvigoration of the District, Norton in July introduced the District of Columbia Incentives for Business and Individual Investment Act to reauthorize federal tax incentives for D.C., including a $5,000 homebuyer tax credit, as well as a wage credit of up to $3,000 in the D.C. empowerment zone, a special capital gains rate, expanded tax-exempt bond financing, and additional expensing for equipment purchases. These incentives had transformative effects downtown and in communities throughout the city. Wards 7 and 8 benefitted significantly from the homebuyer tax credit, but only now would be fully able to take advantage of the business tax incentives. Norton has put a high priority on getting these tax incentives, which were left out of the most recent extension of tax incentives, ironically, because the incentives have had such a beneficial effect, reauthorized. Norton wants them reauthorized, however, so that neighborhoods like Anacostia can benefit from the business development likely to be spurred by the new headquarters of DHS, the first federal agency to be located east of the Anacostia. Norton will work with Republicans, who first proposed making D.C. an empowerment zone in their party platform in 1996, to get the incentives reauthorized.

Progress in Making D.C. Equal and Self-Governing

The year began with the House denying Norton's motion to restore the District of Columbia's first and only vote on the House floor, the vote in the Committee of the Whole, but by the year's end she had convinced Republicans to help her keep D.C. open during the federal government shutdown. Although the right to vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole, which she first won in the 103^rd Congress, was approved by the federal courts, Norton proceeded without a vote to pass D.C. bills, successfully fight attacks on home rule, get D.C. rights traditionally afforded to states, expand home rule, get significant new support for D.C. statehood, and build unprecedented momentum for budget autonomy.

Keeping D.C. Running Through Fiscal Year 2014

In the agreement to end the 16-day federal government shutdown, Norton got a provision included to keep D.C. open for the rest of fiscal year 2014 at fiscal year 2014 levels while the federal government continues to run on a short-term continuing resolution until January 15, spending at 2013 levels. Working on several fronts, Norton first convinced Republicans to pass a bill to allow the city to remain open temporarily. When that bill was not passed by the Senate, she raised the issue with the president at a White House meeting with House Democrats. She then negotiated with the administration, Senate Democrats and House Republicans to achieve the provision that allows D.C. to spend its local funds and remain open for the remainder of fiscal year 2014.

Unprecedented Momentum for Budget Autonomy

Progress with Republicans and Democrats this year on budget autonomy showed that 2014 could be the year for budget autonomy. The shutdown fertilized momentum for budget autonomy, which has been building with bipartisan support from the administration and the Congress, as well as the referendum that Norton has kept Congress from disturbing. The president, for the first time in an administration's budget, included legislative language for budget autonomy in his fiscal year 2014 budget. The positive trajectory rose to a new level when the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the president's budget autonomy provision. In addition, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) got his own budget autonomy bill passed in committee. He and Norton are working to perfect final language. Finally, Republicans, in arguing for the Republican continuing resolution to keep D.C. open during the federal government shutdown, made strong arguments that the city should be able to spend its own money.

Laying the Groundwork for Statehood: The First D.C. Statue in the Capitol

Despite years of rebuffs by opponents of D.C. statehood, this year Norton got a bill passed that treats D.C. like the 50 states. Her bill brought a statue to the U.S. Capitol representing the District, the only jurisdiction that is not yet a state to have a statue there, along with the 50 states. House and Senate Republican and Democratic leadership sponsored the unveiling of D.C.'s Frederick Douglass statue, with Vice President Joe Biden and members of the Douglass family joining Norton and others to speak at the ceremony. Reinforcing the significance for statehood, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) offered a forceful and unequivocal call for Congress to grant the District of Columbia statehood during his remarks at the ceremony. Reid also announced that he had become a cosponsor of the Senate companion to Norton's D.C. statehood bill, a rare act for a Majority Leader, who cosponsor few bills. In January, Senator Thomas Carper (D-DE), chair of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which has jurisdiction over D.C., introduced the Senate counterpart to the Norton statehood bill and later promised a D.C. statehood hearing in 2014.

Attacks on D.C. Home Rule Combatted

In 2014, Norton intends to maintain her record of preventing any new riders or other inroads into home rule. Most important this year was keeping the D.C. budget autonomy referendum from being wiped out, despite language in a House appropriations bill committee report questioning its legality.

After Norton kept Representative Trent Franks' (R-AZ) post-20-week D.C. abortion ban bill from coming to the House floor, he amended the bill to instead make it apply nationwide. Norton worked with her allies to keep the D.C. abortion ban bill, also introduced in the Senate, from going to the floor in either chamber this year. Ironically, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), the Senate sponsor of the D.C. abortion ban bill, initially said he could not support a nationwide abortion ban bill because it would violate ‘states' rights,' although he later came around.

Norton also defeated attempts to reattach riders to the D.C.'s appropriations bill. As the fiscal year 2014 D.C. appropriations bill process began, she held a Save D.C. Home Rule press conference with Mayor Gray and national gun safety, needle exchange, and reproductive rights groups, whose issues often have been used to attack D.C. home rule. The groups alerted members of the House and Senate that their members nationwide would be keeping close tabs on anti-home-rule amendments and bills.

As every year, Norton faced bills to eliminate all or parts of D.C.'s gun laws. She worked with the Senate to remove from the final fiscal year 2014 Defense Authorization bill a House amendment expressing the sense of the Congress that active duty military personnel in their private capacity should be exempt from gun safety laws here, but not from such laws in any other states. A bill to strike all of D.C.'s gun laws was reintroduced at the end of this year, during the week of the one-year anniversary of the Newtown shooting. Norton, who called this timing an act of "insensitive disrespect," was the only elected official to speak at the National Cathedral Vigil in remembrance of the shooting and all victims of gun violence throughout the nation.

More Equality for the District of Columbia

Not content with defending home rule, Norton strengthened and expanded home rule this year.

Norton's Hatch Act National Capital Region Parity Act became effective, giving D.C. residents who are federal employees the right to run for partisan political office in local elections as independents, which their regional counterparts have had since the 1940s. The bill enables a significant segment of D.C.'s population to more fully participate in the political life of the city.

In a home-rule victory for the District and its women, D.C. is now treated as a state under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The District will now get the same amount of funding as states, at 1.5% of the total appropriated by Congress, rather than the 0.25% allotted to four of the territories. This change maximized funding to combat the epidemic of domestic violence in D.C.

Norton got a provision included in the Senate's farm bill that enables the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) to receive federal funding for forestry research, a victory for the equal treatment of the District. Although UDC is the nation's only urban public land-grant university, without this provision, its college of agriculture has not been eligible for those funds.

Significant Public Safety Measures Achieved

Norton Mitigates Sequestration's Effect on Public Safety

A day after Norton sent a letter to House and Senate appropriators outlining the potential hazards of sequester-induced furloughs of the U.S. Park Police officers to public safety, the National Park Service (NPS) announced furloughs of Park Police officers would end. Norton was particularly concerned that officers in the Park Police, a unit of the NPS, were furloughed while no other NPS employees were furloughed. The risks to public safety brought on by the furloughs were of special concern because the Park Police has jurisdiction citywide and throughout the region, and because it is the principal federal agency for policing major outdoor events, such as parades and marathons, in the nation's capital.

Norton also wrote to House and Senate appropriators to request that federal police forces, including the U.S. Capitol Police, the Federal Protective Service and the U.S. Park Police, be given flexibility to avoid any furloughs, considering that the sequester cuts could continue for several more years.

Permanent Lighting to Deter Crime Near Fort Totten Metro

A permanent solution is at hand following muggings in 2012 on a path in the National Park Service (NPS)-owned Fort Totten Park connecting the Fort Totten Metro station to a nearby Ward 5 neighborhood. Norton inspected the path, and then invited Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyon McDuffie and NPS, D.C. National Guard, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), U.S. Park Police, D.C. Department of Transportation, and Metropolitan Police Department officials to her office to develop both interim and permanent solutions to reduce crime on the path. She got NPS and WMATA to place temporary lights on the path until a permanent solution could be funded. Now, NPS has taken the first step toward a permanent solution, with an environmental assessment and a public meeting in the New Year to solicit input and comments from interested parties. Norton will continue to work with NPS on permanent solar-powered lights, which have been successful in combating crime on a nearby path, and on paving the path.

Norton Gets Action to Protect Postal Service Workers Following a Tragedy

Following the murder of a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) letter carrier in Maryland, Norton, a senior member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and its subcommittee with jurisdiction over the USPS, secured a victory for enhanced USPS worker safety efforts. After the tragedy, Norton wrote to the U.S. Postmaster General regarding the risk of requiring postal employees to deliver mail after dark. In response, USPS and the National Association of Letter Carriers have jointly initiated a nationwide network to identify and address safety issues that pose threats to America's letter carriers.

Responding to Tragedy at the Navy Yard

Following the Navy Yard shooting in September, Norton wrote to President Obama urging him to form an independent panel to investigate the many security issues raised by the tragic mass shooting. She recommended a panel not only of law enforcement, intelligence, military and security experts, but also experts from such disciplines as technology, psychology, and city and land use planning, to get the needed fresh post-9/11 thinking on how to secure federal employees who work in facilities, like the Navy Yard, that are increasingly a part of a residential or business community.

Norton also met with the Capitol Police Union following the shooting, at their request, concerning the frustration of a Capitol Police tactical team that was ordered to stand down at the scene of the shooting. This controversy is an example of the issues that need to be investigated by the independent panel requested by Norton. An internal Capitol Police investigation found that tactical police forces were ordered to remain at the Capitol because it was not known initially if the Capitol might also be attacked. However, the Capitol was covered by other Capitol Police tactical teams, and it still is not known whether the Capitol Police tactical team at the scene could have saved lives without putting the Capitol at risk, assuming the appropriate coordination of police forces.

Norton offered remarks and led a moment of silence on the House floor in memory of the 12 victims of the Navy Yard shooting and attended the memorial service at the Marine Barracks.

Success in Keeping Our City and Region Protected from Terrorist Attacks

Norton overcame a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) plan to move the Office of National Capital Region Coordination (ONCRC) – which is tasked with terrorist and disaster protection – from the National Capital Region to Philadelphia, PA, hundreds of miles away. Norton got language preventing the move in both chambers. In response to her letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Vice Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) and House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers (R-KY) and Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-NY), language was included in the report accompanying the Senate Appropriations Committee-passed fiscal year 2014 Homeland Security Appropriations bill rejecting the FEMA proposal. The Congresswoman also got language included in the committee report accompanying the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee-passed FEMA Reauthorization Act of 2013 to retain the office in the National Capital Region.

Norton Uses Senatorial Courtesy to Ensure a Responsive Federal Justice System

With the assistance of her Federal Law Enforcement Nominating Commission, Norton continued to use her senatorial courtesy, an important element of statehood, to shape the direction of federal law enforcement in the District. All of Norton's recommendations to President Obama for federal law enforcement officials in the District this year were nominated, and one was confirmed – Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first African American woman appointed to the federal district court here in 32 years, and only the second to ever serve. The other two were also district court nominees – Casey Cooper, who had a committee hearing, and Tanya Chutkan – but they were not confirmed before the end of the session. However, the president is expected to renominate them on the first day of the second session. Currently pending before the Senate is the nomination of Judge Robert Wilkins, the first of Norton's district court recommendations, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (the D.C. Circuit). The D.C. Circuit is widely regarded as the second most powerful court in the United States and a stepping stone to the Supreme Court. In November, with the Senate's first change in filibuster rules in nearly 40 years, which now require an up-or-down vote for all nominations other than for the Supreme Court, Judge Wilkins will likely be readily confirmed early next year. As chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Judicial Nominations Working Group, Norton joined many of her CBC and Senate colleagues, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), at a press conference to celebrate the new filibuster reform rule. In July, Norton's Judicial Nominations Working Group lead a CBC press conference urging the Senate to move African American judicial nominees forward. The new filibuster rule is the response Norton was after.

Norton has had unprecedented influence on the selection of federal law enforcement officials in the District, primarily judges. A majority of the judges on the federal district court here were recommended by Norton and nominated by either President Obama or President Bill Clinton, both of whom granted her senatorial courtesy to recommend major federal law enforcement officials here.

In addition to Jackson this year, and the expected renominations of Cooper and Chutkan early next year, President Obama has nominated and the Senate has confirmed all five of Norton's other recommendations for federal district court judges here – Amy Berman Jackson, James E. Boasberg, Rudolph Contreras, Beryl A. Howell and Robert L. Wilkins.

Norton Gets Parole Commission Reauthorized on Last Day Before Expiration

Norton led the effort to reauthorize the U.S. Parole Commission (USPC) for five years, ensuring continuation of the agency whose majority population is D.C. Code felons on parole or under supervised release. Congress had intended to end the USPC, but the National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Act of 1997 guarantees that it will have continuing responsibilities. This year, Norton finally overcame previous short-term reauthorizations of two years, which had led to serious legal issues raised by federal courts as Congress habitually reauthorized the agency only as expiration approached. The bill was signed into law the day the commission was set to expire. The USPC is chaired by Isaac Fulwood, former D.C. Chief of Police, who Norton recommended to be a commissioner and the chairman.

Getting Equal Treatment and Insisting on Basic Fairness

Fair Prison Phone Rates for Prisoners and Families Achieved

As Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Prison Telecomm Reform Working Group, Norton led the effort to get the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to bring prison phone rate fairness to incarcerated individuals and their families. A press conference featuring two D.C. residents, Martha Wright, and her grandson, Ulandis Forte, the lead plaintiffs for families nationwide in both the court case and the FCC petition, announced the CBC response, written by Norton, to the FCC proposed rulemaking to resolve the issue of exorbitant rates charged to prisoners and their families. In August, the FCC ordered reasonable phone rates. The FCC order is a critical ingredient of the successful reentry of prisoners to civil society. Evidence has long shown that more than any other factor, contact and communication with family and loved ones or a support system reduce recidivism and lead to successful reintegration of offenders into civil society.

New Benefits for the LGBT Community and D.C.

The District of Columbia, along with the LGBT community here, will particularly benefit from the Supreme Court's ruling that Section 3 the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional because D.C. and only 18 states permit same-sex marriage. Of the thousands of married same-sex couples in 18 states and the District of Columbia who will have access to almost 1,000 valuable federal benefits, D.C. residents may benefit disproportionately. D.C. has a large number of federal employees, and its same-sex couples who are federal employees will benefit from federal employee benefits, including subsidized healthcare. The Internal Revenue Service ruled that legally married same-sex couples will be recognized for all federal tax programs, including income, gift and estate taxes. The Court ruling will likely bring a revenue bonus to the District itself because of the same-sex couples who come here to be married. Norton was pleased and proud to officiate at a same-sex wedding of D.C. residents Dr. Stephen Johnson and Dennis Kovanda at the foot of the U.S. Capitol Building this summer.

Senate passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) this year, which provides protection from workplace discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, is of special importance to Norton, a former chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which will enforce ENDA. She will continue her leadership on ENDA in 2014 to help to focus the momentum on House passage.

Loving Washington's Football Team, Not Its Disparaging Name

Norton has been a leader in the growing national movement to change the offensive mascot and name of Washington's professional football team. She is a cosponsor of the bill to cancel existing trademark registrations containing the term "redskin," and to deny registration for new trademarks using the term. In May, she and nine other members of Congress wrote to National Football League (NFL) Commissioner Roger Goodell, Washington football team owner Daniel Snyder, the 31 other NFL franchises, and Washington football team sponsor FedEx, urging a change in the team name. Norton recently recorded a radio spot calling on the Washington football team to change the mascot and make the name a source of pride that honors D.C.'s tradition of respect for all Americans. In October, Norton joined a panel discussion on the growing name-change movement, sponsored by the Oneida Indian Nation that included Native American leaders, sports commentators and civil rights leaders. The team's attempts to further trademark the team name have been rejected four times on grounds of disparagement by the Patent and Trademark Office, and a new ruling, expected soon, could use the same reasoning to cancel the trademark altogether.

Initiating a New National Focus on Black Men and Boys

This year, Norton, with Representative Danny Davis (D-IL), founded the Congressional Caucus on Black Men and Boys, a national counterpart to her successful D.C. Commission on Black Men and Boys. Its inaugural event in July featured remarks from Tracy Martin, the father of Trayvon Martin, and three prominent Black men speaking about the stages in the life of an African American male in the United States today – David Johns, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans; Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, author and Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University; and Kweisi Mfume, former congressman and former president of the NAACP. For Norton, the most appropriate legacy for Trayvon Martin would be action to repeal the Stand Your Ground laws in the 24 states where they exist.

Focus on Relieving Poverty: Removing Unjust Cuts to Food Stamps and Extending Long-Term Unemployment Insurance

As House Republicans have abandoned the poor, Norton has increased her attention to the available remedies. She participated in the "SNAP Challenge" for a week – living on the average food stamp budget of $31.50 per week, or $4.50 per day – to fight further reductions in funding from nutrition assistance programs as they face over $40 billion in cuts in the House Republican proposed farm bill reauthorization. The Republican cuts were so severe that they originally brought down the farm bill.

At the same time, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, passed by Congress this month, reduced the likelihood of a federal government shutdown in fiscal year 2014 and fiscal year 2015 because it sets discretionary spending caps, but failed to extend the Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs, leaving 1.3 million Americans without unemployment insurance benefits after December 28, 2013. Norton, anticipating Republicans' refusal to extend this vital program in the budget deal, introduced a bill just before the deal was passed that targeted the crisis of the long-term unemployed. She is concerned that regardless of skill, they often continue to be unemployed as preference is given to workers unemployed for shorter periods. To keep long-term unemployed workers, many with skills, from becoming permanently unemployed, her bill would give employers a $5,000 tax credit against their payroll tax liability for each new net person hired who has been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer.

Fighting for Federal Employees and Low-Wage Federal Contract Workers

Standing with Federal Employees

Norton, a senior member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has jurisdiction over federal employees, made special efforts to protect these repeatedly beleaguered employees during perhaps the worst year in decades for federal employees, when hundreds of thousands faced both sequester furloughs with loss of pay and a third year of pay freezes. The President, by executive order, raised federal employee pay by 1% for 2014, but they will never recover the losses to their wages and pensions. Norton was particularly outraged that Member pay was excluded from sequestration after a controversial interpretation of sequester legislation. She not only introduced a bill to subject Member pay to any future sequestration, she also pledged to match the highest number of furlough days by any federal agency in fiscal year 2013 with a donation of her pay to the Federal Employee Education & Assistance Fund, which provides no-interest loans and grants to federal employees experiencing financial hardships.

Shoring up Federal Employees

Norton, who represents many federal employees, also introduced a series of bills to bring increased stability and fairness to federal employees. Most important was her bill to overturn an unprecedented federal court decision that strips federal employees of their due process right to independent review of agency decisions removing them from jobs on national security grounds. Support for Norton's due process bill grew when a bipartisan group of Senators – Jon Tester (D-MT), Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) – introduced a companion bill earlier this month, giving the bill a good chance of passage. Norton also introduced another bill to subject Congress and its legislative branch agencies to health and safety standards and civil rights laws that currently apply to executive branch agencies and private sector employers, but not to Congress and legislative branch agencies. In an effort to give federal employees more economic security, Norton introduced a bill, at no cost to the federal government, to give federal employees short-term disability insurance for up to a year if they become injured or ill because of a non-work related injury or illness. Norton believes she may be able to move these bills because they do not add to the deficit, but offer general fairness to federal employees.

Gaining Ground Towards Livable Wages for Low-Wage Workers in Federal Facilities

Norton has been a leader in the effort to increase the wages of the federal government's low-wage contract workers, who are paid by employers with contracts with federal agencies. After standing in solidarity with federal contract workers protesting their low wages at demonstrations and strikes at federal buildings, Norton saw the first breakthrough this year when federal contract workers at several Smithsonian museums won union representation. Following the federal government shutdown, Norton introduced a bill to grant back pay to low-income federally contracted retail, food, custodial and security service workers who were furloughed during the shutdown, just as furloughed federal employees received back pay. She wrote a letter to the President that was sent by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, of which she is a member, on the low wages paid by federal government contractors, which results in millions of workers nationwide who are barely able to support themselves and whose low wages undermine the nation's economic prosperity. She pointed out that the federal government allows exploitative contract employers often to pass on to federal taxpayers the cost for health insurance and other benefits that private employers who offer decent wages generally cover. Her letter recommends that the president establish a working group of federal agencies to consider suggestions, such as an executive order requiring that fair wages be a factor in the competition for federal contracts.

Norton in the Neighborhoods

Norton's many community events range from frequent Norton in Your Neighborhood Community Conversations on federal issues to her annual tax and small business fairs. This year, several unique events stood out.

Staff Hard at Work at a New District Office

Norton opened a new main constituent services office at store-front level in a new building in the NoMa neighborhood, at 90 K St. NE Suite 100, located at the corner of 1^st and K streets NE, behind Union Station – a new mixed-use neighborhood that developed because of Norton's work in the T&I Committee Economic Development Subcommittee. The office, which serves all D.C. residents, is backed up by her office at 2041 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave, SE, which serves constituents residing on the east side of the Anacostia River. Shortly after the opening, the NoMa Business Improvement District held a welcome to the neighborhood open house and a ribbon-cutting for the new office.

Norton Going Further on the CSX Virginia Avenue Tunnel Project

With continuing community concerns over the proposed CSX Virginia Avenue Tunnel Project, Norton drew a large crowd to her community meeting to hear from residents, CSX, the Federal Highway Administration, and the D.C. Department of Transportation. As a minority party member, Norton cannot call a hearing, so she suggested at the meeting that she could request a hearing, and has since written Highways and Transit Subcommittee Chair Tom Petri (R-WI) to request a hearing on the project. In addition, Norton suggested given concerns that had been raised at the meeting, such as noise, vibrations, air quality, and the physical location of construction, Norton said there could be benefits to a community meeting with the Environmental Protection Agency. That meeting is being planned for January.

Introducing D.C. Health Link Serving Our Community, Members of Congress and Their Staff

The D.C. health care exchange, D.C. Health Link, is unique because it serves not only D.C. residents and businesses, but it is also where members of Congress and their staffs must purchase health insurance if they want to continue to receive their employer contribution. D.C. Health Link was one of only four jurisdictions that had a successful launch of its health care exchange on October 1, and has experienced fewer problems than HealthCare.gov and many state websites. Norton, using the occasion of Hispanic Heritage month, sponsored a forum to help D.C. residents learn how to use D.C. Health Link. At the event, Norton also honored Maria Gomez, President and CEO of Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care and a recipient of the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal, for her work in the D.C. Hispanic community.

Honoring D.C. Veterans

...Who Serve

D.C.'s record of service in the armed forces, without a congressional vote or equal representation, has historically exceeded other jurisdictions. Norton honored special veterans – two of the original Tuskegee Airmen from D.C. – on Veterans Day at the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum, where she and Mayor Gray laid a wreath. A ceremony followed in the museum for William Fauntroy, Jr. and Major Louis Anderson, whose service inspired the large audience to build on the success of freeing D.C.'s budget in fiscal year 2014 from federal budget fights until budget autonomy for the District is achieved.

…and Hope to Serve

Norton's Service Academy College Fair and Sendoff was the largest such event since Norton has been a member of the House, and there were 89 applicants this year, the largest by far on record. Norton combined the sendoff ceremony for this year's six appointees to the service academies with a college fair to allow younger students to hear from actual recent service academy appointees, who can encourage students to apply to the service academies. Academy alumni from D.C. and service academy admissions officers were on hand with information about the application process, the advantages of an academy degree and life in the academies.

Bringing Federal Parks and Outdoor Areas in D.C. to Their Full Potential

No Smoking in Federal Parks in D.C.

Norton has received encouraging news following her request to the National Park Service (NPS), which owns most D.C. parks, to ban smoking in all NPS units, including parks, sites and trails, here. NPS currently allows smoking only in restricted areas of some parks, but given the nature of smoking and its dire effects on D.C. children and many adults, Norton believes a smoking ban is particularly appropriate in the NPS parks, where children and adults go for fresh air and games, given the documented effects of second-hand smoke.

Making Glover Park a D.C. Model

Norton is pursuing affirmative strategies to designate a NPS trail in Glover Archbold Park in Northwest as the "Rachel Carson Nature Trail." She believes that residents of the Wesley Heights and Foxhall Village communities, who requested her bill to designate the trail to honor Carson, the world-renown environmental pioneer and inspiration for the environmental movement, have started something useful that NPS should encourage. Although the community gathered evidence that Carson studied nature in Glover Archbold Park, as a federal employee at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission (NCMAC) concluded that it was neutral on the naming of the trail, after Norton testified before the Commission twice in support of renaming the trail. The NCMAC's position is that the designation can be done by either Congress or administratively by NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis if he determines there is compelling justification for the naming. Norton is working with the Senate sponsor of her bill, Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), of the state where Carson was born, on the bill. At the same time, she believes that a trail to commemorate Carson's association with Glover Archbold Park would do more than honor Carson and her groundbreaking book, Silent Spring. Norton is prepared to request administrative designation if the bill does not move quickly enough. She believes that the strong interest of the local community in a NPS trail and the involvement of students in its upkeep foster important goals of the NPS itself. While other communities may not be interested in naming trails, NPS should embrace the community's interest in its park and name the trail for Rachel Carson, and try to spread this community's affection for Glover Park to other NPS parks.

Making a Historic Cemetery into a Park

Norton held her first ever "Clean-up our History Day at Woodlawn Cemetery," to assist with the clean-up of the historic but overgrown cemetery, which is the final resting place in Ward 7 for many prominent African Americans, including Blanche K. Bruce, the first African American U.S. Senator, and John Willis Menard, the first African American elected to Congress. Speakers at the event included Lonnie G. Bunch, Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Several community clean-up events at the cemetery have followed.

Enlivening the Mall

Building on her efforts last year to enliven the National Mall, Norton expanded Lunchtime Music on the Mall, with auditions at Metro headquarters. Every Tuesday and Thursday during the warm weather months, local and regional musicians came to the National Mall to perform during lunchtime hours, giving visitors as well as federal and other office workers downtown a break from the pace of business in Washington. Lunchtime Music on the Mall, sponsored by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the NPS, in conjunction with Norton, will resume in the Spring of 2014, and Norton plans to expand it to other areas of the Mall beyond its current home across from the steps of the National Gallery of Art.

Published: December 26, 2013