Norton to Testify at Trial of D.C. Protestors Arrested for Advocating for D.C. Rights

September 19, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will testify this afternoon at the trial of eight D.C. protesters who were among the "DC 41," the first of 74 District residents arrested after the fiscal year 2011 spending bill. The eight protestors on trial today were charged with "unlawful assembly-blocking passage" while peacefully protesting the near shutdown of the D.C. government in April and the final 2011 continuing resolution (CR), which contained two anti-home-rule riders--a prohibition on the District spending its local taxpayer-raised funds on abortions for low-income women and a D.C.-only private school voucher program. Norton was invited to testify at a time when she is fighting the same issues in Congress in fiscal year 2012 that led to the arrests of the DC 41.

Norton will go to the House floor tomorrow during consideration of the short-term fiscal year 12 CR to speak about the rejection by Republicans of an amendment Representative Alcee Hastings (D-FL) that offered at her request during a House Rules Committee meeting last week to allow the District to spend its own local funds for all of the fiscal year 2012. The Congresswoman got a rider-free FY 2012 D.C. appropriations bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday, and is working to see that the final D.C. Appropriations bill is free of anti-home-rule riders. The House Appropriations Committee-passed D.C. Appropriations bill would bar the District from spending its local funds on abortions.

"The eight defendants on trial today, along with the DC 41 and others who were arrested, DC Vote, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Center for Reproductive Rights and others from the coalition of a 100 organizations, have been essential in spotlighting House Republican anti-home-rule actions," said Norton. "Although we had a great victory last week in the Senate, we remain determined to remove during conference the one rider that remains, an anti-choice rider placed on the District's budget in the House. These defendants have already had an effect on this year's appropriations. They remind us that when citizens have tried repeatedly for redress for violations of their rights, using all the traditional vehicles, but to no avail, they are left with little alternative but to take peaceful action."

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