The Public Record
Eleanor Holmes Norton is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. Representative for the District of Columbia since 1991. A member of the Democratic Party, she has been a strong advocate for D.C. statehood and local autonomy. Throughout her tenure, Norton has focused on issues such as civil rights, education, and public safety, often emphasizing the unique challenges faced by residents of the District of Columbia. She has been vocal against federal interference in local governance, arguing for the rights of D.C. residents to have representation and control over their own affairs.
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…
I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 362, a bill that honors the 41st and 43rd Presidents of the United States, President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush, by naming a United States…
I appreciate the gentleman yielding. The majority will allow a vote of every other Member on what affects only my district. No wonder the D.C. mayor, the council and residents have taken to civil disobedience.
I thank the gentleman from Colorado for yielding to me and for his work on this bill. Madam Speaker, the District of Columbia has no vote on the rule or the bill under consideration. Yet the only controversial attachments in this bill…
I come to the floor today to celebrate the 41 District of Columbia elected officials and residents led by Mayor Vincent Gray and five members of the D.C. City Council who were arrested in front of the Hart Senate office building yesterday…
I thank the gentleman for his efforts. I'm here to say to my good friends on the other side, it's one thing to beat up on the District of Columbia; it's another thing to drop a bomb on the city. And that's what this CR does. It takes the…
How much more contempt can you show for the citizens who live in the Nation's Capital? If the Republicans are going to require Members to cite the Constitution in introducing legislation, I ask them to stop tearing up the Constitution and…
I have come to the floor because in a very real sense I feel surrounded. Mr. Speaker, I was sent to Congress, like every other Member, to attend to the business of the Nation. But in fact, I have been surrounded. I have been surrounded by…
I appreciate my friend yielding me 2 minutes. I did not get an opportunity to speak on the last amendment. Although I'm from the region, I did want to reinforce why the compromise fashioned by the chairman and the ranking member is so…
To introduce P.L. 104-134, which has helped us produce a large-scale robust alternative public school system that is now a model for the Nation. The pattern of this Congress could not be clearer. They began by stripping the District of…
The speaker before the last speaker wanted to know what the offense was. The offense is to the home-rule prerogative to the people of the District of Columbia to decide on educational choices for their own children. That's what the offense…
The residents of the District of Columbia see a pattern here. The majority begins by taking away my vote in the Committee of the Whole so I can't vote on any part of this bill this afternoon, then they take away or try to take away the…
I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings), the ranking member of the committee.
The gentleman cited a number of schools that he said vouchers had helped. There is no data showing that voucher schools--and there have been a few in the United States--have ever scored better than children in public schools. And since…
On that I demand the yeas and nays. The yeas and nays were ordered. The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 185, nays 237, not voting 10, as follows: [Roll No. 202] YEAS--185 Ackerman Altmire Andrews Baca Baldwin…
I respect my good friend, but I have got to stand for and with the people I represent. And if the gentleman wants to put the joy in the hearts of my parents, I challenge him to put joy in the hearts of the parents of his beloved Indiana…
First of all, I have to correct the gentleman from California. The District charter school bill was created by Speaker Gingrich in partnership with me. He came to me and proposed a voucher bill. I asked him, since the District had a local…
I have a substitute amendment at the desk. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will designate the amendment. The text of the amendment is as follows: Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the following: SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE…
You know, in the later days of European colonialism, countries like France allowed some representation from the colonies because the whole notion of voting on the fate of the colonies with nobody there who could also vote seemed even then…
Thank you very much, and I certainly thank my good friend from Florida for his work on not only this bill, H.R. 471, but for his strong respect for the District of Columbia and its residents and his support for our right to self-government…
So in the first test of their legislative cut-go protocol, they will be voting to violate it. They will be voting to do so with $300 million added to the deficit at a time when they are cutting $11.6 billion with a ``b'' from education…
How much time remains? The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from the District of Columbia has 10\1/2\ minutes remaining, and the gentleman from California has 14\1/2\ minutes remaining.
To the gentleman who didn't have the nerve to yield to me, this bill, of course---- Point of Order
No one ever said that everybody in the District of Columbia or even every public official was against vouchers.
I thank the gentleman from Maryland for his terrific help on all we have done on this bill. Let me count the ways I strongly oppose H.R. 471: Because it reestablished a program that failed to improve academic achievement as measured by…
Politicians like Eleanor Holmes Norton
