Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Last week, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) wrote the Director of the National Park Service, the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the General Manager and CEO of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to request a meeting to discuss the discovery of an unexploded ordinance on the Fort Totten Trail in the District of Columbia.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) celebrated famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ 204th birthday. Douglass was a longtime District of Columbia resident and an avid proponent of equal rights for D.C. residents. A Norton bill placed D.C.’s statue of Douglass in the U.S. Capitol, making D.C. the only jurisdiction that is not a state with a statue in the Capitol. A Norton bill established a bicentennial commission to plan, develop, and carry out programs and activities to honor and celebrate the life of Douglass. Norton was appointed by then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to serve on the commission.

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today highlighted the 22 bills she has introduced this Congress in her Free & Equal D.C. series. The bills would provide the District of Columbia with elements of statehood, pending enactment of Norton’s D.C. statehood bill.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said House Republicans have threatened to repeal the District of Columbia Home Rule Act if they take over the House next Congress. They cited reasons such as crime, homelessness, and drug use, all of which are present throughout the country. Several House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA), Representative James Comer (KY), the ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, which has jurisdiction over D.C., and others recently told the press that they plan to limit D.C.’s authority to govern its own affairs next Congress, including, according to Representative Andrew Clyde (GA), eliminating it by repealing the Home Rule Act.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced today she has introduced the Combating Implicit Bias in Education Act, which would create a $30 million grant program for schools to train teachers, principals and other personnel on implicit bias. Norton says the program would cover both actual and perceived race, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), disability, ethnicity and socioeconomic status.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that the District of Columbia will score a historic victory for equality with the states on February 28, 2022, when D.C.’s second statue in the U.S. Capitol will be unveiled in a ceremony with congressional leaders. D.C. will join each of the 50 states in having two statues in the Capitol. The statue is of Pierre L’Enfant, which D.C. commissioned more than a decade ago with the hope that it would one day be displayed in the Capitol.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that 49 House and Senate Republicans have vowed in a letter to vote against the next fiscal year 2022 appropriations bill unless it defunds the enforcement of both federal and District of Columbia COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The federal government is currently operating under a continuing resolution (CR), which expires February 18, 2022. If Congress does not extend the CR or pass the regular appropriations bills by then, the federal government would shut down. While Norton has gotten D.C. exempted from federal government shutdowns, Congress appropriates D.C.’s locally raised funds.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) announced today, during the first week of Black History Month, that they will introduce a bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the 200,000 African Americans who fought to preserve the Union during the Civil War.