Norton on House Floor Today for Special Order on D.C. Home Rule

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will make remarks for about 30 minutes on the House floortoday, June 12, at approximately 1:45 p.m., in light of recent attacks against the District of Columbia's home rule and the upcoming D.C. appropriations bill.

"Many Members are relatively new but others need reminding that the District is an independent jurisdiction of more than 600,000 Americans, who have the same right to govern themselves as citizens of other districts," said Norton.

Thus far in the 113th Congress, there have been significant attacks on home rule.

• The most recent attack on home rule was a bill introduced on May 30 by Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) that undermines the labor rights of federal employees, and redefines the District of Columbia government as a federal agency to pull in D.C. government employees, who are paid with local funds.

• Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) reintroduced a bill to make permanent law the annual abortion rider that prohibits the District from spending its local funds on abortions for low-income women, and redefine the D.C. government as part of the federal government for purposes of abortion.

• Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) filed an amendment to express the sense of the Senate that Congress should pass a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks in the District of Columba, and he reintroduced his stand-alone D.C. abortion ban bill to do just that. Representative Trent Franks (R-AZ) reintroduced his companion D.C. abortion ban bill, but has since expanded it to a nationwide ban.

• Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) introduced a bill that would eliminate all of the District's gun safety laws and make the District one of the most permissive gun jurisdictions in the country.

• Representative Phil Gingrey (R-GA) introduced a stand-alone resolution expressing the sense of the House that active duty military personnel in D.C. should be exempt from D.C.'s gun laws, but not those of any other jurisdiction. He successfully offered the bill as an amendment to the fiscal year 2015 Defense Authorization Act, which passed the House.

• A House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on Government Operations hearing singled out D.C.'s marijuana decriminalization bill – but none of the 18 states that have already decriminalized marijuana – immediately followed by an announcement by Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) that he is interested in introducing a disapproval resolution to overturn D.C.'s local legislation.