Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) celebrated the new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge yesterday, for which she got the majority of funding using her role as chair of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. She said the bridge, replacing the South Capitol Street Bridge, is “perhaps the most important bridge in the nation’s capital,” connecting commuters, visitors and Wards 7 and 8 to the city’s other six wards. Her remarks, as prepared for delivery, from yesterday’s ribbon cutting for the bridge follow.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) reintroduced her Protecting Independent Contractors from Discrimination Act this week, which would extend the same federal antidiscrimination protections enjoyed by employees to independent contractors.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), and Congressman Anthony Brown (D-MD) announced that their District of Columbia National Guard Home Rule Act, which would give the D.C. mayor control over the D.C. National Guard (DCNG), passed early this morning in the House Armed Services Committee as part of the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Van Hollen is the sponsor of the Senate version of the bill. Currently, the President controls the DCNG, while the governors of the states and territories control their National Guards. Today’s passage is the first time in history a committee in either chamber has passed a bill that would give the D.C. mayor control over the DCNG. The NDAA, the annual defense policy bill, has been enacted for each of the last 60 years.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) reintroduced her bill to remove the National Capital Planning Commission’s (NCPC) authority over D.C. property today.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), and Congressman Anthony Brown (D-MD) announced today that their District of Columbia National Guard Home Rule Act, which would give the D.C. mayor control over the D.C. National Guard (DCNG), has been included in the chairman’s mark of the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), released today. Currently, the President controls the DCNG, while the governors of the states and territories control their National Guards. The House Armed Services Committee will mark up the chairman’s mark on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Congressman Mondaire Jones (D-NY), and Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY) introduced a bill this week to create a stamp commemorating civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, coinciding with the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington and the anniversary of Rustin's death.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced a resolution that would designate Chuck Brown’s birthday, August 22, 2021, as “Chuck Brown Day” to honor his contributions as the “Grandfather of Go-Go” and his support for District of Columbia statehood. The musical genre of go-go originated in D.C. with Brown as the main progenitor. Norton introduces the resolution each year for Brown’s birthday.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today vowed to defeat an anti-home-rule bill introduced by Congressman Pat Fallon (R-TX) that would prohibit the District of Columbia from requiring an individual to present documentation of COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of entering any building, facility or other venue in D.C.