Norton Presides At Lengthy Session in House Today (4/2/08)

Norton Presides At Lengthy Session in House Today
April 2, 2008

Washington, D.C. -Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today became the first of the five delegates to preside this session in the Speaker's chair. Norton was able to preside for longer than usual because the bill before the House, The Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008, was considered of particular importance and was allotted two hours rather than the usual single hour of debate. "More important," she said, "the bill before the House today added particular meaning to the occasion for me. The strong bipartisan support for the bill was particularly gratifying. I am committed to helping to quickly reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS here and to continue to raise consciousness concerning prevention so that funds can be moved to developing countries most in need."

Norton presided several times during her second term in the House, after she sent a memorandum to Speaker Tom Foley requesting the vote in the Committee of the Whole for the first time in the city's history, then proceeded to vote in spite of litigation by the Republicans in the federal courts, which proved unsuccessful. However the Republicans revoked delegate voting when they took control of the House. Norton reclaimed the vote shortly after Democrats returned to power in 2007 at the same time that she achieved passage of the D.C. House Voting Rights Act.

That bill was passed by the House last year. Passage in the Senate fell short by 3 votes of the 60 that were required. "Delegate voting has helped raise consciousness here and around the country about the outrage of the denial of full voting rights to tax paying citizens of the nation's own capitol," Norton said.