Eleanor Holmes Norton

I regret that that has to be done, but you can't ask somebody to drive a bus if you are going to be assaulted, and you don't know who is going to get on your bus and do so.

I was astonished that bus drivers... were being attacked apparently often enough so that a job action was threatened.

I think Federal Government involvement in terms of making sure that, even if the State agencies are doing it as an oversight, that there is some overlaying uniform set of criteria so that everyone lives up to the same standards I think is…

Congress, in the wake of this historic crash that so alarmed the country, many of us introduced a bill...

Most of us did not know--I don't believe I knew until the crash--that there were no national rail standards.

The nature of the penalty is such, I take it, that is so disproportionate, as it were, to the crime, that perhaps many violations do, in fact, not get referred, and therefore the violations, perhaps, are encouraged to continue.

I appreciate this hearing, Mr. Chairman, as we approach another election.

Governor Haley, you certainly have my congratulations. So far as I know, you are the first woman elected in her own right as Governor of a Southern State.

I welcome both of these officers of the State. While your own testimony might be predictable, protecting your State, your testimony is certainly understandable.

I hope that following this hearing, this committee may once again embrace the long tradition of Republican and Democratic chairmen alike to avoid the possibility of appearing to taint a legal proceeding by engaging in a hearing while the…

I may be a Member of Congress, but I am still a member in good standing of the bar and an officer of the court.

But, Mr. Chairman, today's hearing makes unfortunate history with an unprecedented appearance of an abuse of the rule of law and constitutional due process.

I believe, for sure, I speak for the residents of the District of Columbia when I say that a great Senator has had time to work not only for his State, but to do wonderful work for the District of Columbia.

Do you believe in majority rule? The majority wants to be represented.

Well, some of us value the seafood from the Gulf region. I think it is the very best, so I am particularly interested in the effect of the Gulf's oil spill on that part of the economy, which I understand is almost half of the economy, a…

I am convinced that the District of Columbia could teach the Congress some things.

Back on the school issue, I believe every State has a June-July fiscal year.

I think it would be a major implement of our ability to manage budget if we have the budget autonomy.

If we had closed down.

But then I had one bill that said in the event of a shutdown, in any year, the District may spend its local funds so that we would not have to go through what we went through this time.

Chairman Issa's proposal is something I want to very much--it is the first I've heard of it, but it is one I certainly very much would like to work with him on and to build on.

The Congress of the United States had not denied the District of Columbia the right to spend its own local money to save the lives of District of Columbia residents.

It is a tough budget with admirable balance. It spreads the pain.

I want to commend you on the budget that the mayor--first, you, Mayor Gray, have submitted.

I note that we are honoring Specialist Phillips the day after we learned that the Nation has met its commitment to kill or capture Osama bin Laden. We could not have known when this bill was placed on the calendar that it would come at a…