Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced today she has reintroduced her District of Columbia Courts Home Rule Act, which would give the Council of the District of Columbia authority over the jurisdiction and organization of the local D.C. courts. The D.C. Home Rule Act expressly prohibits D.C. from enacting any law with respect to any provision of the D.C. Code that relates to the jurisdiction and organization of the local D.C. courts. Congress can give D.C. this authority even before the District becomes the 51st state. This is the fourth bill Norton has introduced this Congress to improve the local D.C. courts. She has introduced bills to increase the pay of local D.C. jurors, expedite appointments of local D.C. judges and prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ local D.C. jurors, the latter two of which have been passed by the Committee on Oversight and Reform.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Tuesday, December 14, 2021, at noon, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine will host a press conference with Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and leaders from the States United Democracy Center and the Anti-Defamation League to make a major announcement regarding the January 6 insurrection and those responsible for it.

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today led members of the National Capital Region in sending a letter urging Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Amtrak Chief Executive Officer William Flynn to prioritize funding for the Washington Union Station Expansion Project as they begin to implement the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law on November 15, 2021. The cosigners of the letter are Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Representative Jennifer Wexton (D-VA), Representative Don Beyer (D-VA), Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Representative Anthony Brown (D-MD), Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD).

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that the House passed her Women Who Worked on the Home Front World War II Memorial Act yesterday. The bill would authorize a memorial on federal land in the District of Columbia to honor the 18 million American women who kept the home front running during World War II.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today reintroduced a bill to exempt from federal government shutdowns agencies that have jurisdiction only over District of Columbia matters but are exclusively funded by the federal government and not under the District’s control. Norton emphasized that these agencies are essentially D.C. agencies that have nothing to do with federal issues or congressional shutdown matters. They provide critical criminal and civil justice services to the District and should continue to function during a federal government shutdown to protect the safety and well-being of D.C. residents.

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Today, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), Representative Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), and Representative Anthony Brown (D-MD) expressed disappointment that the final National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (NDAA) does not give the D.C. mayor control over the D.C. National Guard and vowed to keep fighting to enact this important and necessary reform into law.

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced the District of Columbia Transportation Funding Equality Act, which would make D.C. eligible for two federal transportation programs in the same manner that states are currently eligible. The bill would treat D.C. as a state in the High-Density States Formula for certain grants from the Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund and for the Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities program. D.C. is not eligible for the former and is treated as a territory for the latter.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will hold a virtual community meeting open to all District of Columbia residents with representatives from the National Park Service (NPS) and U.S. Park Police on Thursday, December 9, 2021, at 7:00 p.m. Her quarterly community meetings with NPS have been popular with her constituents. Most D.C. neighborhood parks fall under NPS’s jurisdiction.