Norton Introduces Bill to Allow President to Order Nation’s Flag at Half-Staff Upon Death of a D.C. Mayor, Like Governors
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) has introduced a bill to add the Mayor of the District of Columbia to the list of principals for whom the president can order the nation’s flag be flown at half-staff. Current law states that the president can order the flag to be flown at half-staff “upon the death of principal figures of the United States Government and the Governor of a State, territory, or possession, as a mark of respect to their memory.” Norton said D.C. mayors, who perform many of the same functions as state and territorial governors, clearly qualify as principals and should receive equal recognition.
“Even though the District is not yet the 51st state it strives to be, its current home-rule status entitles a deceased mayor to the same respect as comparable figures of states, territories, or possessions, which are named in the statute,” Norton said. “I should be able to get this bill passed because I can only assume that the omission of the District of Columbia was an oversight and not meant to disrespect a deceased D.C. mayor or the residents of the District of Columbia. Adding D.C.’s mayor to the list of officials who can be honored with flags flown at half-staff is a small but, to D.C. residents, significant way to ensure residents receive the equal treatment they deserve. The D.C. mayor, unlike the principal figures of states, territories, and possessions, is likely to have met with the president and has had an official relationship with the president, who transmitted the city’s budget to Congress until this year. The official and likely personal relationship argues strongly for this protocol sign of respect to be included in current law, as other principals are.”
Norton has successfully gotten other congressional recognition of the District of Columbia in situations where the city was overlooked while honoring the states. As a result of her work, the District of Columbia War Memorial honors only District residents who served in World War I; D.C.’s Frederick Douglass statue sits in the Capitol alongside statues from the 50 states; the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 requires the armed services to display the District flag whenever the flags of the states are displayed; D.C. has a coin after it was omitted from legislation creating coins for the 50 states; the U.S. Postal Service created a D.C. stamp, like the stamps for the 50 states; and the National Park Service added the D.C. flag alongside the state flags across from Union Station.
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