Norton on House Floor at 2:15 p.m. Today to Take On Two Republican Attacks This Week on D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two Republican attacks in one week targeting the District of Columbia's home-rule authority are sending Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) to the House floor today at 2:15 p.m., where she will take on the increasing use of the District as a vehicle for the extreme views and pet projects of House Republicans.

She will take to the floor following yesterday's hearing on a bill (H.R. 3803) which would ban abortions after 20 weeks in the District of Columbia. Subcommittee on the Constitution Chairman Trent Franks (R-AZ), the author of the bill, denied Norton the congressional courtesy of testifying at the hearing. "The cavalier disregard of ordinary comity and civility was the least of the issues raised by yesterday's hearing, where Professor Christy Zink, a D.C. resident, gave compelling testimony concerning an abortion she had to have at 21 weeks because of a hopelessly deformed fetus," Norton said. "The supposedly small government, Tea Party Republicans lacked the courage to introduce a post-20-week abortion ban bill for the entire nation, which they knew the nation would not buy, and took the bully's path to make an ideological point at the expense of the District of Columbia. In doing so, they violated one of their most sacrosanct principles -- that the reach of the federal government must be contained – by trying to move the federal government into the last place the founders would have sanctioned – local government decisions."

Last night, Norton took on Rep. Phil Gingrey's (R-GA) non-binding sense of the Congress amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (H.R. 4310) that says all active duty military personnel in their private capacity should be exempt from D.C.'s gun laws. Gingrey seemed surprised by Norton's strong opposition to the non-binding amendment, but she said on the House floor that "the majority can expect a fierce fight from us whenever a bill degrades our citizens and treats them, in any way, as second-class citizens."

Published: May 18, 2012