Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden will visit a pediatric COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Children’s National Hospital in Southeast D.C. this afternoon to continue the nationwide effort urging parents and guardians to vaccinate children ages 5-11. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, Washington Mystics player Alysha Clark and Washington Wizards player Thomas Bryant will also participate.

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) released a statement today upon learning that Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) will not seek reelection. Leahy is the longest-serving senator still in office and a strong supporter of statehood and full home rule for the District of Columbia.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a senior member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, announced that President Biden today signed into law her bill banning smoking, including of electronic cigarettes, on Amtrak as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This is the second Norton bill that has been enacted into law to ban smoking on a form of transportation. Norton’s bill to clarify that the ban on smoking on airplanes includes electronic cigarettes was enacted into law in 2018. Norton got the idea for the Amtrak bill when an 11-year-old constituent informed her office that he had seen someone smoking an electronic cigarette on Amtrak. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today reintroduced the District of Columbia Bridges Home Rule Act, which would repeal a redundant 1997 federal law that makes it a crime for a person in the District of Columbia to obstruct any bridge connecting D.C. and Virginia. The District already had, and continues to have, its own local law prohibiting obstructing a bridge in the District. There is no federal law that prohibits a person in Virginia from obstructing such a bridge or a person in any state from obstructing a bridge connecting two states. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will attend the signing of the historic infrastructure bill at the White House. Norton, who is a senior member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the chair of its Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, met with President Biden and Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg when the legislation was being written. Under the bill, the District of Columbia will receive $1.1 billion for roads and bridges, $1.2 billion to improve public transportation, the opportunity to apply for $2.5 billion in grant funding dedicated to electric vehicle charging, 164,000 D.C. residents will be eligible to apply for affordable internet access, $10 million to protect against cyberattacks, and $355 million to improve water infrastructure and ensure access to clean, safe drinking water.

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today congratulated the Howard University administration and the student protestors on reaching an agreement. Last week, Norton requested a meeting with Wayne Frederick, president of the prestigious historically Black university located in the District of Columbia. Norton was also seeking a meeting with student protest leaders to discuss their concerns. The protest, during which students, alumni, housing activists and celebrities slept outdoors in tents to bring attention to their concerns, lasted 34 days.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As President Biden prepares to sign the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law next week, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) highlighted the ways the historic legislation will benefit the District of Columbia. Norton, who is a senior member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the chair of its Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, met with Biden and Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg when the legislation was being written. Under the bill, D.C. will receive $1.1 billion for roads and bridges, $1.2 billion to improve public transportation, the opportunity to apply for $2.5 billion in grant funding dedicated to electric vehicle charging, eligibility for 164,000 D.C. residents to apply for affordable internet access, $10 million to protect against cyberattacks, and $355 million to improve water infrastructure and ensure access to clean, safe drinking water. Norton emphasized the unprecedented nature of the bill, a breakthrough from simply adding funds to embracing new approaches to transportation and infrastructure.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) reintroduced the Paul Laurence Dunbar Commemorative Coin Act to direct the Secretary of the Treasury to mint 50,000 five-dollar coins, 400,000 one-dollar coins and 750,000 half-dollar coins in recognition of Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of the most influential African-American poets in American literature, ahead of the 150th anniversary of Paul Laurence Dunbar Senior High School in the District of Columbia. The surcharge on each coin sold would benefit scholarships and similar activities of the Dunbar Alumni Federation, the alumni association for the historic Paul Laurence Dunbar Senior High School, the first public high school for African Americans in the United States. Norton is a Dunbar alumnus. Many well-known and accomplished African Americans graduated from Dunbar. Among many notable alumni are: Edward Brooke, the first popularly elected African American to the U.S. Senate; Wesley A. Brown, the first African American to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy; and Robert C. Weaver, the first-ever Secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.