Eleanor Holmes Norton: “I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his work in helping to bring this bill to the floor today. I especially want…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his work in helping to bring this bill to the floor today. I especially want to thank the ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Elijah Cummings, who introduced the Hatch Act Modernization Act of 2012 in the House, and to thank Senator Daniel Akaka, who introduced the bill in the Senate. I want to especially thank Chairman Darrell Issa, who held very productive and revealing hearings on the Hatch Act during this session, without which this bill could not have come to the floor today. And I thank our friends in the Senate, Senators Joseph Lieberman and Susan Collins, who had their own hearings to modernize the Hatch Act, and who supported the provisions of this bill that pertain to the District of Columbia only. The Hatch Act Modernization Act of 2012 contains two of our longtime priority bills for the district--the District of Columbia Hatch Act Reform Act and the Hatch Act National Capital Region Parity Act--giving D.C. full equality under the Federal Hatch Act. Our first bill, the District of Columbia Hatch Act Reform Act, which is included in this bill, passed the House in the last Congress but stalled in the Senate. I have been fighting for the bill for most of my term of service in the Congress. The D.C. Hatch Act Reform Act eliminates discriminatory treatment of the District of Columbia, which, alone among U.S.…”