Media

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that she was encouraged by her meeting yesterday with Secret Service Director Julia Pierson regarding the organizational breakdown at last Wednesday's 50th anniversary celebration of the March on Washington. They discussed the checkpoint backup at the March's general public entrance, which left many marchers unable to attend the event, long lines in the heat, humidity and rain, with D.C. emergency workers called out, and reported hospitalizations.

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) last week wrote a letter to National Park Service (NPS) Deputy Superintendent Gopaul Noojibail asking NPS to hold a public meeting in light of questions and concerns raised by D.C. residents about the proposed cleanup plan for Kenilworth Park. Residents argue that the cleanup is not necessary and that they would lose the park to construction for several years and that it could bury the ecosystem. The NPS feasibility study to evaluate alternatives to cleanup Kenilworth Park has identified minimal risks thus far.

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) yesterday attended what she said was the only bicameral and bipartisan security briefing held since she became a member of Congress. She said that the briefing was very helpful, but that she needed more information in order to agree that D.C. residents should again go to war. "They went to war in Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, without a vote only to return to the U.S. still without the vote that they had secured for people in these countries," Norton said.

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) made the following statement on President Obama's remarks on Syria today.

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today applauded Thursday's U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service ruling that legally married same-sex couples will be recognized for all federal tax programs, including income, gift and estate taxes. She said that the ruling will also bring a bonus to the District of Columbia because of same-sex couples who are likely to come here to be married from non-same-sex marriage states in even greater numbers, and will have their marriage festivities here.

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today wrote to Secret Service Director Julia Pierson requesting an immediate meeting following the organizational breakdown at yesterday's 50th anniversary celebration of the March on Washington on the National Mall. A security checkpoint backup at the general public entrance resulted in many marchers unable to enter the event and long lines in the heat and rain, with reported hospitalizations.

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who, as a law student, was on the staff of the 1963 March on Washington, and as a college student attended the 1957 March, will be at Wednesday's 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Wednesday with "the same focus on remedies" she saw brought to the marches when she was a young woman in the civil rights movement. Both the 1963 and 1957 civil rights marches on Washington were instrumental in achieving important civil rights legislation at a time when race and racism were major issues in the country.

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) sent a letter to National Park Service (NPS) Director Jonathan Jarvis last week asking that NPS provide an alternative site near the Ellipse in President's Park where D.C. residents can hold recreational activities they had enjoyed until they were preempted without notice. NPS recently planted trees near the Ellipse, an area commonly used for recreational activities, without giving public notice.