Norton Statement on Speaker Boehner’s Resignation

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released the following statement after Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced he would resign from Congress at the end of October.

"Speaker John Boehner has not been a friend of the District of Columbia, but he has not positioned himself as an outspoken opponent. On the hot-button issues, he has not discouraged or stood in the way of Republicans who opposed home rule and democracy for the residents of the District.

"John and I came to Congress at the same time, and I have sometimes seen him operate as a strong conservative without resorting to the extreme measures that have characterized his caucus during much of his speakership. He has been for shutdowns, for example, and he has been against them. Speaker Boehner resigns now in the face of a determined and ultra-extreme faction of his own party who oppose him on any measure that would appear reasonable to the other side. He has shown a consistent ability to retain his authority, and I believe he would have survived were he challenged. If anything, his resignation appears to signal a worsening, not an improvement, of the polarized Republican majority, which, in refusing all compromise, has given Congress its lowest rating in history.

"Speaker Boehner leaves office as he has achieved his long dream of having a pope address the Congress, and on a high institutional note, saying to his caucus as he announced his resignation that a government shutdown would be harmful to the institution and to his party."