Norton to Host Emergency Town Hall to Highlight Disproportionate Impact of Trump Shutdown on D.C., Thursday
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will host a town hall with federal employees, federal contract workers and local District of Columbia businesses to highlight the deeply harmful impacts of the Trump shutdown on D.C. residents and the District's economy on Thursday, January 24, 2019, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., at One Judiciary Square (441 4th St. NW). Norton is also encouraging testimony from D.C. tenants and landlords who have been hurt by the shuttering of federal rental housing assistance programs; nonprofits, such as area food banks, that are providing increased social services to assist federal workers and contractors; and other D.C. residents whose families and neighbors have suffered during the Trump shutdown.
Norton introduced a bill to guarantee back pay to low-wage federally contracted retail, food, custodial and security service workers not getting paid during the current federal government shutdown. She helped pass a bill signed by the President this week to provide back pay to federal employees who have been furloughed or forced to work without pay during this and any future shutdowns.
Norton is a cosponsor of several bills to provide relief to federal employees.
- The Immediate Financial Relief for Federal Employees Act would require the U.S. Treasury, at the request of the employee, to issue 0% interest loans to the 800,000 federal workers who have been impacted by the government shutdown.
- The Federal Employee Civil Relief Act would protect federal workers and their families from foreclosures, evictions, and loan defaults during a government shutdown.
- The Financial Relief for Feds Act would allow federal employees and contractors to withdraw funds from their retirement accounts without being penalized.