Media

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) thanked the President after White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest responded to a question today about a bill introduced yesterday by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) that would wipe out almost all of the D.C.’s local gun safety laws, including its ban on assault weapons and large capacity magazines and its registration requirements, and would prohibit D.C. from passing gun safety laws in the future. Speaking for the President at a White House press briefing, Earnest said, “Gun laws that are made by the District of Columbia should be made by the District government,” and that “home rule is important.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) today have introduced the National Rifle Association (NRA)-backed District of Columbia gun bill that forced Norton to pull the D.C. House Voting Rights Act from the House floor in April 2010.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a senior member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, today questioned U.S. Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy at a committee hearing to determine the causes of ongoing problems at the agency, including a March 4 incident at the White House in which agents may have interfered with an ongoing bomb investigation outside White House security barricades.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Following a U.S. Department of Transportation’s Inspector General (IG) draft report released last week citing major problems with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s (MWAA) auditing policies and procedures, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a senior member of the House Aviation Subcommittee, today announced she will introduce a bill to require MWAA to adopt Federal Acquisition Regulations, federal anti-nepotism rules, and generally accepted federal auditing standards.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—As the pace picks up for construction of the next phase of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) consolidation at St. Elizabeths West Campus in Ward 8, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) has sent a letter to National Park Service (NPS) Director Jonathan Jarvis urging his agency to quickly begin the process of transferring eight acres of Shepherd Parkway to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA).

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Following what appear to be new threats against two anti-discrimination bills recently passed by the District of Columbia Council, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that she will oppose any effort to overturn the bills in the U.S. House of Representatives as strongly as she indicated last week she would oppose the disapproval resolutions introduced in the Senate.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) tomorrow, March 24, will speak at the ribbon cutting of the Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce 6th Annual Business Expo: Connections, Opportunities, and Growth held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center’s Hall D (801 Mt. Vernon Pl. NW) at 9:00 a.m.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced a resolution condemning Dalit untouchability, the practice of birth-descent discrimination against Dalit people, which is still widely practiced in India, Nepal, the Asian diaspora, and other South Asian nations, and calling on these countries to recognize the human rights of the Dalit people and end all forms of untouchability within their borders.