Norton Introduces 10th Anniversary Resolution Honoring Two Postal Workers Killed in Anthrax Attacks
Norton Introduces 10th-Anniversary Resolution Honoring Two Postal Workers Killed Here in Anthrax Attacks
October 25, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced a resolution honoring the lives and the work of the late Joseph Curseen, Jr. and Thomas Morris, Jr., the United States Postal Service (USPS) employees who died as a result of the anthrax attacks ten years ago while working at the USPS processing facility located at 900 Brentwood Road, NE, which is now renamed for them. "On the 10th anniversary of the anthrax attacks, we particularly remember Joseph Curseen, Jr. and Thomas Morris, Jr. These native Washingtonians, both raised in this city, gave decades of dedicated service to the United States Postal Service," said Norton, a senior member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which has jurisdiction over the USPS. "Their deaths shook the Postal Service, the city and our country. Ten years after the worst biological attacks in the nation's history, we remember the dedication of both men and the courage of postal employees, who continued to work then as now."
In 2002, Norton co-sponsored the bill that renamed the USPS processing facility on Brentwood Avenue, NE the "Joseph Curseen Jr. and Thomas Morris, Jr. Processing and Distribution Center." Last year, Norton introduced a resolution directing the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee to recommend to the U.S. Postmaster General to issue a postal stamp honoring the lives and dedication of both Curseen and Morris. Norton stands by her resolution and continues to urge the issuance of the stamp. The committee may issue commemorative stamps five years after the death of an individual, and Norton believes that this year, the 10-year anniversary of Curseen's and Morris' deaths, would be a particularly appropriate time to do so.