Ahead of 8th Anti-Home Rule Hearing This Congress, Norton Calls for End to Paternalistic, Wasteful Hearings on Local D.C. Affairs
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ahead of tomorrow’s anti-D.C. home rule Committee on Oversight and Reform (COR) hearing, titled “Oversight of D.C.’s Response to Unlawful Activity and Antisemitism,” Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that the current Republican preoccupation with grandstanding to score political points at D.C.’s expense must end. Tomorrow’s hearing will be the eighth anti-DC hearing – the fifth in COR – held by House Republicans this Congress, none of whom were elected to represent D.C.
“Protests are occurring on campuses across the country, including in Chairman Comer’s home state of Kentucky,” Norton said. “The only remarkable aspect of the protests at George Washington University is that they’re occurring in D.C., which has more experience managing protests than any other jurisdiction in the country. This undemocratic, paternalistic preoccupation with the affairs of D.C. by members of Congress elected to represent far-away districts must end.
“While my colleagues across the aisle could be working to solve problems across the country or to advance the goals of their own constituents, they are instead choosing, yet again, to use valuable time scoring political points at the expense of nearly 700,000 people who live in D.C. who elected me to represent them in Congress. Ahead of the eighth anti-DC home rule hearing in the 118th Congress, I’m calling for an end to the unseemly, paternalistic, wasteful Republican fixation on D.C.”
###