Norton Thanks Speaker Emerita Pelosi for Cosponsoring D.C. Statehood Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today thanked Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for cosponsoring Norton’s D.C. statehood bill and for Pelosi’s history of championing D.C. home rule.
“Speaker Pelosi is perhaps the most important and effective member of the House in history,” Norton said. “No Speaker or Minority Leader has ever fought harder to give D.C. residents voting representation in Congress, full home rule, or to ensure D.C. is treated like a state in all respects, and by cosponsoring my D.C. statehood bill, she’s demonstrating her continued support for D.C. residents’ right to self-governance. As she has said publicly many times, these issues are in her blood, given her father’s work in Congress, and she has fought both publicly and behind the scenes on behalf of D.C. residents.”
“The sacred right to have a voice in our government is fundamental to our democracy – but for far too long, residents of Washington, D.C. have served in uniform, paid federal taxes and followed federal laws while being denied full representation,” Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi said. “Thanks to Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's years of tireless leadership, House Democrats have rallied around the need for D.C. statehood and twice passed H.R. 51 when we held the Majority. While Republicans shamefully continue to block this important legislation, I am proud to co-sponsor the D.C. Admission Act again as we continue fighting to secure access to the ballot box for Washingtonians.”
During Pelosi’s tenure as Speaker, the House twice passed Norton’s D.C. statehood bill, which are the only times either chamber of Congress has ever passed the D.C. statehood bill. The House also passed Norton’s D.C. House Voting Rights Act, which would have given D.C. voting representation in the House, and several Norton bills to expand D.C. home rule, including voting to give D.C. control over the D.C. National Guard. Pelosi also fought countless Republican attempts to repeal, block, or impose D.C. laws, brought D.C.’s second statue to the Capitol, giving D.C. two statues in the Capitol like each state, and ensured D.C. was made whole in the American Rescue Plan for the $755 million D.C. was shortchanged in the Republican-drafted CARES Act, which treated D.C. as a territory instead of a state for coronavirus fiscal relief, even though D.C. pays full federal taxes.
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