Norton to Introduce Amendment on House Floor to Prevent Racial Profiling, Monday

WASHINGTON, DC – The office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that on Monday Norton will introduce an amendment on the House floor to prohibit states that receive federal transportation funding from engaging in unconstitutional profiling based on physical characteristics, such as race. The amendment seeks to prevent profiling by law enforcement officials and to ensure citizens are not stopped, investigated, arrested, or detained based on their appearance. The amendment will be offered to the House fiscal year 2015 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill, which will be considered on the House floor on Monday.

"Considering our country's history and increasing diversity, we are late in barring profiling at the national level," said Norton. "At the very least, federal taxpayers should not be compelled to subsidize the unconstitutional practice of profiling by law enforcement officials. I hope that Members of Congress, regardless of our differences, will agree on the importance of restricting the use of federal funds for practices that promote profiling."

Last year, on the one year anniversary of the death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old African-American boy who was killed by a neighborhood watch member, Norton reintroduced her bill to reestablish a popular federal grant program aimed at reducing racial profiling. The bill permits states to apply for grants to develop racial profiling laws, to collect and maintain data on traffic stops, to fashion programs to reduce racial profiling, and to train law enforcement officers. Nearly half of the states participated in the program when it was in existence, which, Norton said, shows both the need and interest in tackling this civil rights issue. Norton got the program included in the surface transportation law in 2005, but the program expired in 2009. Norton, the Ranking Member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, will try to get this bill included in the surface transportation reauthorization bill Congress will be writing this year.

Published: June 6, 2014