Eleanor Holmes Norton: “Yesterday, I began a series of remarks leading up to tomorrow, Emancipation Day, in the District of Columbia, when…”

“Yesterday, I began a series of remarks leading up to tomorrow, Emancipation Day, in the District of Columbia, when Lincoln and the Congress freed the slaves in the District 9 months ahead of the Emancipation Proclamation. There are no slaves living in the District today, nor is there a single free and equal citizen living in your Nation's Capital. Freedom from slavery did not give residents freedom as equal citizens. During yesterday's remarks in this series, I spoke about D.C. residents going to war, to every war since the Nation was created, without ever having a vote. Today's remarks fit today, April 15, the day when D.C. residents will be the only Americans who pay Federal taxes without a vote for or against those taxes or anything else. For us, it is not tax day; it is taxation without representation day. It is no overstatement to say that this House is obsessed with taxes, that is to say, tax cuts. There are tax cut bills on the floor this very week. Our residents are not demanding tax cuts--take the money-- but they are demanding the rights that go with the taxes they pay. We want an end to no vote on this floor; an end to local matters coming to Congress without a vote on this floor; an end to D.C.'s local budget, of all matters, coming to Congress, even though there is not one dime of Federal money in it, only local money.…”