Norton to Hold Special Order on House Floor to Highlight D.C. Statehood Ahead of Emancipation Day, Tuesday

April 8, 2019

Contact: Jack Miller

Norton to Hold Special Order on House Floor to Highlight D.C. Statehood Ahead of Emancipation Day, Tuesday

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will hold a special order on the House floor Tuesday evening to highlight statehood for the District of Columbia in advance of D.C. Emancipation Day, when slaves in the nation’s capital were freed nine months before the Emancipation Proclamation.  She will emphasize that 157 years later, D.C. residents are not yet fully free or equal.  Congress can overturn the local laws of the District, and imposes federal taxes on D.C. residents without residents receiving representation in their government.

“District of Columbia residents have fought alongside other Americans in every war and pay the highest federal taxes per capita,” Norton said.  “Despite these sacrifices, D.C. residents are fighting for the same equality as other citizens, making true emancipation yet to come.  Leading up to Emancipation Day, I will go to the House floor to press forward the D.C. statehood bill, with 202 House cosponsors and every single Democratic Senator endorsing findings that support D.C. statehood.  The time has come for Congress to right this historic wrong and make D.C. the 51st state.”

The D.C. statehood bill has a record number of cosponsors in the House (202) and Senate (32), has been strongly endorsed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and House Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) has committed to holding a hearing and markup on the bill this year.  In addition, the House passed H.R. 1, the For the People Act, which contains extensive findings endorsing D.C. statehood, and every Senate Democrat is a cosponsor of the companion to H.R. 1 (S. 949).

###