On Veterans Day, Norton Honors D.C. Residents Who Have Proudly Served Their Nation Despite Being Denied a Vote
Norton to Introduce Billto Bolster Pro Bono Services for Veterans
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today expressed her deep gratitude to District of Columbia veterans and other veterans across the nation for their service and sacrifice and introduced a new bill for veterans.
"Today, Americans take time to thank and honor our veterans who have proudly and selflessly served our nation," Norton said. "However, over 30,000 veterans living in the nation's capital are still shamefully denied the democratic rights all veterans have fought for and other veterans automatically receive. D.C. veterans do not even have a vote on whether our nation goes to war, despite the risks veterans take and the taxes they contribute to defend our country. This Veterans Day, we particularly acknowledge this denial of democracy to our city's veterans and the other 620,000 American citizens living in the District of Columbia."
Norton also announced that, in honor of Veterans Day, when Congress returns from recess next week she will introduce a bill to allow the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide support to law school clinics that provide pro bono legal and support services to veterans, including assistance with disability claims and appeals, foreclosures, and other cases.
"We must do more to ensure that when our veterans return home and transition to society they are not met with an ineffective bureaucracy that fails to deliver the benefits they have earned or the counseling they need," Norton said. "Law school clinics are a low-cost, highly efficient vehicle to assist veterans that ensures supervision by brilliant law professors and lawyers. The VA is still faced with an enormous backlog of disability claims, and homelessness among veterans remains a critical problem. Providing support to these law school clinics would assist veterans with the many problems they encounter by utilizing the network of clinical programs ready to provide pro-bono legal services for our veterans."