Norton Anchors Special Thirty-Minute Session on Home-Rule Tonight After Votes

Norton Anchors Special Thirty-Minute Session on Home-Rule Tonight After Votes

February 9, 2011

Washington, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will anchor a thirty-minute special order this evening, Wednesday, February 9, 2011, after votes on the necessity to respect home-rule for the District of Columbia. She hopes to help the large freshmen class understand, and to remind incumbent members of Congress, that the District of Columbia must be treated as a self-governing jurisdiction, like their own districts.

"Republicans won control of the House by promising jobs, but have yet to introduce a jobs bill," Norton said. "Instead, they have given their top priority to controversial social issues targeting the District." Yesterday, DC Vote organized a peaceful demonstration at a House hearing on a bill that goes beyond already air-tight restrictions on federal funding for abortions, but also included a section prohibiting the District from using its local funds for abortions. Norton got this and other restrictions on the District's use of its local funds removed during recent years of Democratic control.

The District has come under increasing attack from the new Republican majority. After stripping D.C. of its Committee of the Whole vote, Republicans introduced a bill to re-impose private school vouchers on the District, despite a compromise that allows all students in the program to remain until graduation. The Congresswoman believes that new funds should be applied to the city's own home-rule alternative, its large, model public charter school system, which has long waiting lists.

Norton said that much of the large freshman class is tea-party oriented. She will remind them and other members of Congress that the Republican majority says their chief priority is reducing federal power, even in traditional federal areas, and that using federal power to deprive local jurisdictions of local control operates against their own stated principles.

Tonight will be the first in a series of remarks on the House floor that Norton is planning on full equality for District residents and the District government.