Norton Commends DC's Outstanding Inaugural Performance & Continues Pursuing Reimbursements (1/21/09)

Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said she was proud that the District of Columbia delivered a world-class historic inauguration yesterday. She stated that residents deserved the nearly 1,000 tickets that she was able to get from various sources, considering the generous and mature way that residents tolerated the inconveniences they experienced. She said that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and his administration were thrown an unprecedented challenge and pulled it off without a misstep, and that the District's services, alone, merited the District's request for reimbursement of funds. "The city without a vote delivered for the nation," Norton said. "Everywhere I went people complimented the city, and I intend to see to it that the District gets reimbursed for every cent it spent." She said that it was difficult for the city to front the money and seek reimbursement rather than have money in hand, especially at this time of a national economic crisis, but the city proceeded without complaint." The declaration of a state of emergency should release a substantial amount of funding.

Residents and the two million visitors seemed to understand and tolerate the many challenges presented by the highest level of security many had seen, which was achieved with efficient collaboration between local and federal agencies and between government and private industry. Norton commended the D.C. Metropolitan Police, D.C. National Guard, the National Guard, Secret Service, Capitol Police, Park Police, and the House and Senate Sergeants-at-Arms, with whom she worked throughout pre-inauguration, for their extraordinary work. However, she said Metro employees, and its leader, General Manager John Catoe, were the "unsung heroes" of the Inauguration. "They gave their best and then some," Norton said. "Metro employees did not flinch at a challenge beyond that faced by any public transportation system in the country, but simply kept on going beyond the call of duty." She said that Catoe deserved credit for, "creating a new model for handling unprecedented crowds."