Press Releases
January 16, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After D.C. received a rare snowfall which accumulated enough to close schools and federal government offices, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) released a statement today reminding D.C. residents that her annual provision in the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill allows sledding on Capitol Hill. Capitol Police confirmed this morning that the Capitol grounds are open to sledders of all ages.
January 15, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) called on Congress to pass her District of Columbia statehood bill (H.R. 51) and other important voting rights legislation. Norton’s bill would give D.C. full local self-government, a cause Dr. King championed, and voting representation in Congress.
January 10, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced a bill to place the official seal of the District of Columbia alongside seals of the states in the Library of Congress. Currently, the stained-glass windows in the historic building portray the seals of all states and territories that existed when the building was constructed, except for the D.C. seal, even though it was readily available at the time. The bill is part of Norton’s “Free and Equal D.C.” series of bills.
January 9, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME) introduced a bill today to require the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to provide incarcerated individuals from jurisdictions that allow those individuals to vote, like the District of Columbia and Maine, information on how to register to vote and request absentee ballots.
December 19, 2023
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduced the District of Columbia Special Elections Home Rule Act, which would give the District complete authority to set the date of special elections for local offices, as other jurisdictions already have. The bill would remove a limitation on the District that is not only inconsistent with the self-government authority granted by the Home Rule Act, but is also counterproductive. This bill would strengthen the District's home-rule authority and does not require statehood.
December 11, 2023
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced her bill to allow D.C. to set the pay for its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The salary of the CFO is paid from D.C.’s own local funds. In the last Congress, the bill passed the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.
December 4, 2023
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that her bill, co-led by Congressman Scott Perry (R-PA), to direct the General Services Administration (GSA) to sell the Webster School in downtown D.C. for fair market value passed the House today by voice vote. The legislation would return the long-vacant Webster School building to productive use and was marked up by the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee in July.
December 4, 2023
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) led Members of Congress in writing a letter to the State Department today to request a status update on the case of Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist who holds dual U.S. and Russian citizenship who has been unlawfully detained by Russia since October 18, 2023. Kurmasheva is an editor with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was detained after traveling to Russia for a family emergency.
November 28, 2023
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today reintroduced a bill that would add the District of Columbia to the national empowerment zone program to provide federal tax incentives for businesses to locate and invest in low-income areas in the District. This bill would effectively restore many of the federal tax incentives for investment in low-income D.C. neighborhoods that a Norton bill created in 1997, but that Congress let expire in 2011. Norton's previous tax incentives bill produced significant investment in the District. Norton said that since Congress continues to extend the national empowerment zone program, D.C. neighborhoods that need the incentives should be able to participate in it.
November 21, 2023
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced a bill that requires federal agencies to include in their annual budget justifications the amount they spent on advertising contracts with small, disadvantaged businesses and businesses owned by women and minorities in the previous fiscal year, as well as projections of their spending for the upcoming fiscal year. Norton co-led a letter to President Biden with Reps. Hank Johnson (D-GA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Val Demings (D-FL) seeking answers about the inequity in federal advertising contracts awarded to media and advertising agencies owned by women and minorities as compared to the rest of the industry. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) study found that over a five-year period, the federal government spent more than $5 billion on advertising but Black-owned businesses received only $51 million, or 1.02 percent of those funds.