Norton Remarks Announcing Hearing Date for D.C. Statehood Bill at D.C. War Memorial
WASHINGTON, D.C. – At the DC War Memorial today, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that the House Committee on Oversight and Reform will hold a hearing on her D.C. statehood bill (H.R. 51) on Wednesday, July 24, 2019, in preparation for a floor vote. Norton said her fight to keep the DC War Memorial from being taken from the District of Columbia by Congress and nationalized "is a fitting metaphor for the rights we claim today as American citizens."
Norton's full remarks follow:
"At this memorial dedicated to D.C. residents who died for their city and their country, we announce that H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, will get a hearing in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, July 24. We are grateful to Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings for this early date for the hearing necessary to send H.R. 51 to the House floor.
"This week's Memorial Day commemoration provides an appropriate opportunity for our residents to honor and appreciate those D.C. residents who have given their lives for the nation – without the rights of those who served in the same battalions. Perhaps there is no better way to remember all District veterans than coming to the DC War Memorial, with the names of each of the 499 D.C. residents who lost their lives in World War I.
"However, the D.C. memorial, the only memorial on the National Mall dedicated to the people of only one district, has come to represent all D.C. veterans, who have fought and died in our country's wars. This memorial is so pristinely beautiful that I had to fight a battle royal against a bill by Members of the then-Republican majority to take this memorial from the war dead of the District and rededicate it to all U.S. veterans. Yet, this memorial was paid for by D.C. residents alone, including school children. Our fight for the war memorial that we built and paid for is a fitting metaphor for the rights we claim today as American citizens.
"This memorial has come to represent all of our residents who gave their lives in war, because none of them had the same rights as other Americans. Serving in every war, including the war that founded the United States of America, has not been enough. Paying the highest federal taxes per capita that support our country has not been enough. The shame of being the only country that does not give residents of the nation's capital the same rights as all others has not been enough.
"Today, we gather at this DC War Memorial to say "Enough" in more ways than one. We have had enough of second-class citizenship. And we have almost enough votes – over 200 of 218 – needed to pass the Washington, D.C. Admission Act.
"We cannot help but be optimistic, considering the progress we have made. We have recaptured our right to vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole, allowing the District to vote on important matters along with other Members. We are rapidly nationalizing our statehood bill, with 46 national organizations already endorsing, bringing national support among the millions of Americans they represent. They are helping to break through our greatest frustration – that polls show most Americans think our residents have the same rights they have.
"We come to the DC War Memorial today because there is no better way to ask the country to take the next steps necessary to pass the Washington, D.C. Admission Act. We come full of optimism, because of the progress we have already made in only five months in the 116th Congress. We come determined to become the 51st state of the United States."