Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) testified this morning at the House Rules Committee hearing on her D.C. statehood bill today on behalf of House Democrats. Immediately after the hearing, the committee will vote on a rule that will govern consideration of the bill when it comes to the House floor later this week. The general public can watch the hearing live at rules.house.gov.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) thanked the Biden administration for issuing today a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) strongly supporting her District of Columbia statehood bill (H.R. 51). President Biden has long supported D.C. statehood, but the SAP is the administration’s formal position on H.R. 51. The House will vote on H.R. 51 on Thursday, when it is expected to pass.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that the report released this week by the Army finding that the District of Columbia National Guard had a “lack of understanding” about the “employment and command” of the helicopters used to disperse protesters in the District last June after the death of George Floyd is the latest evidence that the District needs control over the D.C. National Guard.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that she will testify on Tuesday on behalf of House Democrats at the Committee on Rules hearing on her District of Columbia statehood bill (H.R. 51). Members of Congress will be the only witnesses at the hearing. Immediately after the hearing, the committee will vote on a rule that will govern consideration of the bill on the House floor next week. The hearing, which will consider three bills, including H.R. 51, will begin at 9:30 a.m. and can be watched at rules.house.gov.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today reintroduced her resolutions commemorating Emancipation Day and the attempted slave escape that occurred in D.C. on April 16, 1848, on the ship the Pearl. Emancipation Day, which is today, is an official holiday in D.C. honoring the day in 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln freed the 3,100 slaves in the District, nine months ahead of the Emancipation Proclamation.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that her Pay Equity for All Act, which prohibits employers from asking job applicants about their salary history, passed the House today as part of H.R. 7, the Paycheck Fairness Act, sponsored by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). Norton, the first woman to chair the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), considers her bill and H.R. 7 important opportunities to continue the work she led at the EEOC, including improving the Equal Pay Act, which she brought to the commission and enforced for the first time.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today thanked Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) for his work in securing this Congress both the most original cosponsors and total cosponsors ever in Senate for the District of Columbia statehood bill. Carper’s bill (S. 51) had 38 original cosponsors and has 44 total cosponsors.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that her bill (H.R. 51) granting statehood to the District of Columbia was passed by the Committee on Oversight and Reform today. The bill will go to the Rules Committee early next week, the final step before a historic House floor vote later that week.