Media

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) released a statement thanking 25 senators, including Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Thomas Carper (D-DE), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Bernie Sanders (D-VT), and Kamala Harris (D-CA), for sending a letter today to Senate leadership asking that the District of Columbia retroactively receive full coronavirus relief funding. The letter was led by Senators Van Hollen and Carper.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced today that the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has assured her that Hope Village, the men’s halfway house in the District of Columbia, has enough supplies for all residents and is clean and sanitary. BOP also informed Norton that, as she requested, subsistence fees, which can be up to 25% of a resident’s wages, have been waived at halfway houses nationwide. BOP also said that there are currently no known COVID-19 cases at Hope Village.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), in a conference call today with Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials, received assurances that veterans and surviving family members who miss deadlines related to Intent to File (ITF) submissions for their disability or pension benefits will still be able to file after the deadlines, in light of coronavirus. Norton received the assurances in response to her letter to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie asking him to indefinitely suspend all timely filing deadlines related to ITF submissions for these critical benefits.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that she sent a letter to the Acting Director of the National Park Service (NPS), David Vela, asking for answers on measures NPS is taking to protect the safety of U.S. Park Police officers during the coronavirus. Last week, Norton sent a letter to Acting Director Vela asking for answers on measures NPS is taking to protect the safety of NPS staff who work in parks that remain open.

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today remembered Rev. Joseph Lowery, a founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a mentor when she was a young woman in the civil rights movement. Lowery, one of the last living greats of the movement, died on March 27.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said today that she has received assurances from Hope Village, the men’s residential reentry center, or halfway house, in the District of Columbia, that it is providing safe conditions for its residents during the coronavirus. However, Norton has asked the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), which has jurisdiction over BOP inmates at halfway houses, including those at Hope Village, to conduct an unannounced site visit. The assurances from Hope Village came the same day Norton sent a letter to BOP Director Michael Carvajal concerning complaints she received about conditions at Hope Village, such as a lack of soap, during the coronavirus.

Washington, D.C. —Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) expressed profound disappointment that the third coronavirus bill, which was signed into law today, treats the District of Columbia as a territory instead of as a state in the state stabilization fund, depriving the District of $750 million.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that the third coronavirus response bill, which the Senate passed last night and the House is expected to pass tomorrow, defies longstanding precedents in treating the District of Columbia as a territory instead of as a state for federal funding under the $150 billion coronavirus relief fund for states and territories, depriving D.C. of an estimated $750 million. Norton tried to get the bill amended after a draft was released yesterday morning, but Republicans, who refused to do so, led the bill in the Senate.