Norton at Monday Press Conference with Other Delegates on Equal Respect for the D.C. and Territories’ Flags, Service Members and Veterans

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Now that the members of the conference committee on the fiscal year 2013 Defense Authorization bill have been named, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will call on them to include the House-passed provision giving equal respect to the flags, service members, and veterans of the District of Columbia and the territories in the final bill during a press conference on Monday, December 17, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. at a location to be announced. She will be joined by Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (D-MP), who offered the amendment to the House version of the bill that requires the armed services to display the flags of the District and the territories anytime the flags of the 50 states are displayed; Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam), who is a member of the conference committee on the bill; and Congresswoman Donna Christiansen (D-Virgin Islands).

"I will be pleased to stand with my fellow delegates, especially Congressman Sablan, who offered the equal flags amendment, and my other colleagues in the House, who included it in the House-passed fiscal year 2013 Defense Authorization bill to honor all the flags, all the veterans, all the American citizens, all the time," Norton said. "We intend to call on the conference committee to codify equal respect for our flag and the flags of the territories, and especially for our service members and veterans, in the final version of the bill. I remain inspired in this fight for equal respect by Tomi Rucker, a D.C. resident, fire investigator, and mother of a seaman, and by our veterans. The delegates will back them up on Monday, but they spoke with quiet, commanding force for themselves at a press conference after they met with members of the Senate on Wednesday."

Rucker, the mother of D.C. resident Seaman Jonathan Rucker, attended her son's graduation from boot camp at Naval Station Great Lakes. State flags were raised to honor each of the new graduates during the ceremony, but no D.C. flag was raised.

Published: December 14, 2012