Norton Calls Out Bills to Repeal D.C. Home Rule Act, Says They Show Progress Toward D.C. Statehood
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said today that news that Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Congressman Andrew Ogles (R-TN) have introduced bills to repeal the District of Columbia Home Rule Act is a sign of the significant progress that D.C. has made toward statehood.
“Senator Lee’s and Congressman Ogles’ one-sentence home rule repeal bills show the anti-democratic rhetoric from Republicans concerning the District of Columbia,” Norton said. “We have made significant progress in our historic march toward making D.C. the 51st state, and this is evidence of that progress. This response from two Republicans from far away states is, predictably, to try to take away what small measure of democracy the more than 700,000 D.C. residents, a majority of whom are Black and Brown, have. As with previously introduced similar bills, I will defeat these efforts, which will only strengthen our case for statehood.”
The House of Representatives passed the D.C. statehood bill in 2020, the first time in history either chamber of Congress had passed the bill. The House passed it again in 2021. When Norton reintroduced the statehood bill on the first day of this Congress, she did so with 159 original cosponsors, the most original cosponsors of any bill introduced that first day. The bill now has 176 cosponsors. The Senate version, introduced by Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), was introduced this Congress with 40 original cosponsors.
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