Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) sent a letter to the Capitol Police Board requesting that the public have access to the outdoor spaces of the U.S. Botanic Garden that remained open to the public after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were instituted at the U.S. Capitol complex but were closed after the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

WASHINGTON, D.C – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) vowed today to defeat the latest attempt by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) to subvert District of Columbia. home rule. Lee recently introduced a resolution disapproving D.C.’s Minor Consent for Vaccinations Amendment Act of 2020, which permits minors capable of informed consent to receive a vaccine without parental consent.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today sent a letter to the Capitol Police Board asking that the razor wire on the fencing surrounding the U.S. Capitol complex be removed immediately, because it has little security value this long after the attack on the Capitol, is unsightly and is intimidating to visitors and District of Columbia residents.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), co-chair of the Quiet Skies Caucus, sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas asking that their departments’ helicopters in the District of Columbia fly at higher altitudes, limit nighttime flights and flights over residential areas, and provide advance notice to residents of prolonged training in a particular area.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced today that the House Committee on Oversight and Reform (COR) will hold a hearing on her District of Columbia statehood bill (H.R. 51) on March 11, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, a representative from the office of the D.C. Chief Financial Officer, Congressional Research Service Legislative Attorney Mainon Schwartz, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Interim President Wade Henderson and D.C. veteran Harry Wingo are expected to testify. Norton thanked COR Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) for her leadership on D.C. statehood and for prioritizing the bill early in this session of Congress.

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) reintroduced a bill that would permanently remove the statue of Confederate General Albert Pike from federal land near Judiciary Square in the District of Columbia and authorize the Secretary of the Interior to donate the statue to a museum or a similar entity. The statue, which was illegally torn down last year, was donated to the federal government by the Freemasons, authorized by Congress in 1898 and installed in 1901. Last Congress, the House Committee on Natural Resources passed Norton’s bill by voice vote. This is the second in a series of statue and memorial removal bills Norton is introducing as part of her Black History Month series.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that she will reintroduce next week her bill giving the District of Columbia the authority to raise the pay of its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The District’s current CFO, Jeffrey DeWitt, announced his resignation yesterday. In 2013, Norton got a bill enacted into law that gave the District more authority to set the CFO’s pay, but a Republican-led House rejected giving D.C. full and complete authority over this matter.

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today kicked off her Black History Month bill series by reintroducing her bill that would remove the Emancipation Statue from Lincoln Park in the District of Columbia, a federal park, citing its problematic depiction of the fight to achieve emancipation. The statue would be placed in a museum with an explanation of its origin and meaning. This bill is the first in a series of statue and memorial removal bills Norton is introducing during Black History Month.