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Norton Statements, Columns, and News Releases on
Voting Rights and Full Congressional Representation
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Congresswoman Norton with DC Young Suffragist promoting DC voting rights downtown on May 28, 2008.
Norton Says D.C. Voting Rights Bill Has New Republican Commitments
July 15, 2008
Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.)joined D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, members of the D.C. Council, and the executive director of D.C. Vote this morning at a press conference at the Wilson Building, to give an update on her bill, S. 1257, "The District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007," and to offer her continuing support to local officials, and grassroots and civil rights organizations as the Council announced plans to move forward with a D.C. Council bill allowing for electronic message boards ticking off the taxes D.C. residents pay without representation. The boards will be located at the Wilson Building and near the new baseball stadium to promote D.C. voting rights.
The Congresswoman's statement is below:
"In anticipation of a Senate vote, I am reporting that I am optimistic that we have the votes to pass the bill because of discussions with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV); strong support from the Democratic Caucus; continuing, enthusiastic support and assistance from the Chief Republican sponsor Orrin Hatch (R-UT), along with the chief sponsor Joe Lieberman (I-CT); and continuing work by House cosponsor Tom Davis (R-VA), among many others too numerous to thank. We do have new commitments, but we have not been authorized to release them.
I am very grateful for the special attention and work of Mayor Adrian Fenty, Council Chairman Vincent Gray, and the City Council, who have seized new opportunities to press for voting rights. "The Taxation without Representation Federal Tax Pay-out Message Board Installation Act of 2007", is an especially creative example by the Council and the bills' sponsors, Council members Kwame Brown, Marion Barry, Carol Schwartz, David Catania, Tommy Wells, Phil Mendelson, Mary Cheh, Jim Graham, Jack Evans, and Harry Thomas, deserve our special gratitude. However, I believe that all would agree that the grunt work to line up the critical national support necessary to get the votes has not been done by public officials, but by D.C. Vote, working with the people of the District of Columbia, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), and the coalition of national organizations that have worked for this bill for a half-dozen years. In fact, congressional ethics bars members of Congress from the necessary lobbying that D.C. vote has done.
D.C. Vote has been an indispensible actor. Working almost entirely from private contributions from Republicans and Democrats alike, D.C. Vote travelled to the targeted states, met with the important players, and generated positive pro-voting rights news stories and editorials wherever they went. They were on the ground, giving a human face and voice to the bill with professionalism and good spirit. Our voting rights efforts have never had this level of continuing grassroots support before, and D.C. Vote's work shines in the results. Along with D.C. Vote, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, which enjoys unique bipartisan respect among Senators, has been equally important to our efforts. LCCR has never ceased its work for D.C. voting rights. Its willingness to score S. 1257 for purposes of rating the civil rights record of Senators, along with its continuing lobbying of Senators, who always weigh LCCR very seriously, have been important ingredients to our success.
On the ground here in the Senate, we have briefed Senator Reid's staff on the extraordinary work of D.C. Vote and LCCR in the field, which in itself deserves a new Senate vote. In turn, Majority Leader Harry Reid is working with us to get the three additional votes we need. Senator Reid has not yet set a time for a new vote but he is aware that time is short and I have confidence that we will get another vote this term.
I am particularly buoyed by the continuing enthusiasm of my longtime friend Senator Orrin Hatch, the chief Republican cosponsor of S. 1257. Senator Hatch has authored a very scholarly article, appearing in the Harvard Journal on Legislation, that I am releasing today entitled: "No Right is More Precious in a Free Country: Allowing Americans in the District of Columbia to Participate in National Self-Government." The article is deep and pervasive in arguing for the rights of the residents of the nation's capital to have the House vote and is particularly valuable in disposing of the excuse that the bill is unconstitutional. Moreover, Senator Hatch was the chair of the Judiciary Committee for years when the Republicans controlled the Senate and is respected on both sides of the Senate for his expert knowledge and background on the Constitutional and the law.
Our native son, former Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke, the first popularly elected African American senator, has continued to speak directly to Senators. We timed the Congressional Gold Medal - the highest congressional award for Senator Brooke, who was born and raised here, to drive home the importance of our own voting rights struggle. The Senate and House have voted to give Senator Brooke the medal and he will receive it soon. Senator Brooke is among a number of influential Republicans who are working hard on the bill. I thank them, but cannot mention them all. However, the work of Republican Tom Davis and former Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Jack Kemp has been critical in garnering new commitments.
We believe we have the votes. At the very least we believe that we have earned another Senate vote because of the work of D.C. Vote; the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; D.C. residents; the national coalition of organizations; our Senate cosponsors; Senators Lieberman and Hatch; Representatives. Tom Davis and Jack Kemp and; of course, our own D.C. public officials.
Norton's Gold Medal Bill for the First African American Senator, D.C. Native, Highlights D.C.'s Voting Rights Quest
June 9, 2008
Washington, D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's (D-DC) bill, H.R. 1000, the Edward William Brooke III Congressional Gold Medal Act, to honor the native Washingtonian, who was the first African American popularly elected to the U.S. Senate, will be on the House floor for a vote on Tuesday, June 10 after 2:00 PM. Norton conceived the idea for the medal during the struggle for the D.C. Voting Rights Act, on which a second Senate vote is expected soon, following a near miss after House passage of the bill last year. Brooke, who is 88 and resides in Florida, was a strong advocate for the rights of D.C. residents when he served in the Senate from 1967 to 1979 as a Massachusetts senator and has been a major advocate of the pending D.C. Voting Rights Act, making calls to senators and urging passage during a book tour last year upon the publication of his autobiography, Bridging The Divide: My Life. He is expected to attend the ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda to receive the medal. In order to get her bill for the medal, the highest congressional award, to the floor, Norton, the chief sponsor along with the Massachusetts delegation, had to get two-thirds of the House to sponsor her bill. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), the chief Senate sponsor, earlier got two-thirds of the Senate to pass the bill with a bipartisan group of cosponsors, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin (D-IL), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK), John Warner (R-VA), and John Kerry (D-MA).
"Today when the nation is celebrating the breakthrough Democratic nomination of an African American, Senator Barack Obama, Washingtonians take special pride in the historic breakthrough of our native son, Senator Brooke, who had to leave his hometown even to get representation," Norton said. "Senator Brooke did not stop there, however. He went on to achieve the highest state office. Today, when D.C. is seeking its first vote, we are encouraged by the example Senator Brooke set, when few African Americans dared to dream of statewide office. Edward Brooke's achievements speak to the values and the aspirations he received right here from his family, his LeDroit Park community, the D.C. public schools, Dunbar High School, Howard University and Howard Law School." Senator Brooke went to public schools here and served overseas in the armed forces when both were segregated.
The President awarded Brooke the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, the nation's highest medal, in 2004. In Massachusetts, he also served as the first African American Attorney General of a state that was overwhelmingly white. He achieved high state offices as a Republican in a state that was overwhelmingly Democratic. Senator Brooke also received the Bronze Star, the Distinguished Service Award, and the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit from the Italian Government for his leadership during 195 days in Italy as a captain in World War II for five years in the 366th Combat Infantry Regiment.
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Norton to Lead House Floor Special Order On Voting Rights on Tax Day April 15
April 14, 2008
Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will lead a "Special Order" Hour on "Tax Day," Tuesday, April 15, the day District residents pay federal income taxes without a vote. The Special Order, which is broadcast on C-SPAN will alert the Congress and the country of mounting support and pressure to pass the District of Columbia Voting Rights Act already passed by the House in April. Norton will bring large and colorful posters to the floor, to illustrate growing national support for the bill and will offer evidence of strong support from every section of the country. The Tax Day D.C. Voting Rights Act Special Order will begin between 6:30 PM and 7:00 PM following five minute speeches by House members that follow scheduled business.
Norton thanked colleagues from the Congressional Blue Dogs, the most conservative House Democrats, for giving her the first hour of the evening tomorrow that had been assigned to them. "The Blue Dogs may be more conservative and many of us in D.C., but 98% of Democrats and almost 60% of the House voted for the bill. Tomorrow, we will show that Democrats and Republicans from every section of the country support H.R. 1905 and that there is now a large American census for passage of the Voting Rights bill this year."
Additional Tax Day events sponsored by DC Vote include:
- 11:30 AM -1:30 PM Union Station Subway
- 2:30 PM - 4:30 PM Dirksen Senate Building (1st and Constitution, NE)
- 4:30 PM - 6:30 PM National Capitol Post Office (North Capitol at Mass Ave., N.E.)
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Norton Buoyed, Not Daunted by Today's Close D.C. House Vote in Senate
September 18, 200
Washington, DC-- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) issued an optimistic statement and analysis of why she thought the D.C. House vote bill could still pass during the 110th Congress. Her statement follows:
Today the District got 57 votes with another sure vote promised if we had gotten to 59. No one who knows the lopsided, don't-do-it-or-die pressure suffered by four Republicans, who had said they would vote "Yes," can doubt that we are too close to victory to quit now. Too many have done too much to throw in the towel, with one year of this session of Congress still to go and a critical election year ahead in 2008 to work with. The House of Representatives, which alone is affected by S. 1257, has already passed this bill with the outstanding leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Majority Leader Hoyer's strong support and ceaseless effort produced unanimity in the Democratic Caucus. Rep. Tom Davis also was indispensable to this effort. Today's vote would not have happened at all without Majority Leader Harry Reid's dedicated and unyielding support throughout, or without his personal efforts that produced virtual unanimity among the Democrats. We need only two Republican senators to do what eight courageously did today - Senators Bennett, Coleman, Collins, Hatch, Lugar, Snowe, Specter, and Voinovich. We need two senators to understand what "No" means on a voting rights bill for a majority African American district in the 21st century. Had the bill moved forward we would have had more battles and would have lost a few votes on the bill itself, but we would have prevailed with a clear majority. In today's world, a "No" vote on even allowing the bill to be considered is so indefensible and shameful it must be reversed.
After all, the effort for D.C. voting rights in the House of Representatives was always a war. Like the battles that were lost when D.C. residents fought in the nation's first war, however, we are planning right now to see this war through to victory. We believe that like several bills that now are moving forward in the Senate for a second time within a few months after falling short of 60 votes, S. 1257 must and will rise again during the 110th Congress. We did not have the same ammunition that the Republican leadership used to win this first battle. But, we are not without weapons, and they only grow stronger now, especially as 2008 looms on the election horizon, with independents, among our strongest supporters, likely to decide every Republican and Democratic race. Residents and their allies are taking names and gathering resources, already making calls to critical states that we should have had, and did have until the day of the vote. Our allies throughout the country are targeting senators to help make voting for our bill help and voting against it hurt.
Too many have done heroic work to do anything now but keep on and rejoice that we came so close and use the momentum that is still with us, to go the rest of the way: Joe Lieberman, who has carried whatever bill empowers the District with unequalled determination, dedication and skill as if all of us lived in Connecticut; DC Vote, whose ceaseless effort gave the bill a base and a reach we have never had and expert leadership that has no parallel in our history; the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, our not so secret weapon whose influence with Republican and Democratic senators is unequalled and who made S. 1257 a "scored vote," i.e. a vote that has consequences, and they will; and those who have the most to gain - thousands of D.C. residents, many of whom had not been involved before, led by Mayor Adrian Fenty, who not only spared no effort but found effective new ways to move voting rights forward, and Council Chairman Vincent Gray who converted the D.C. Council into a formidable lobby for a bill.
One man stands alone however, and indeed was almost alone in carrying the bill among Senate Republicans. Orrin Hatch never buckled or even hesitated, when most men might well have, in his effort for a bill that was unpopular in his caucus. He could have thrown us overboard and waited patiently, hoping that Utah's time would come without us. A former chair of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Hatch's view of the constitutionality of our bill was critical to the support we received. I never doubted that Orrin Hatch was a principled senator because I have worked with him (yes, and against him) in the past. But, Orrin's sense of principle was unfairly tested during the last few months in the Senate. Yet, he did not blink. In a day filled with heroes, Senator Orrin Hatch stands out.
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Norton Open Letter Enlightens Senate about Some D.C. History to Shed
September 17, 2007
Washington, DC-Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today at a Senate rally with D.C. elected officials and national civil rights and local voting rights advocates released an open letter to colleagues in the Senate that she wrote as a citizen on behalf of "citizens like me who have never had representation [and] residents who arrived yesterday only to lose it." Norton said she was writing because she believed few Senators know the history of the use of filibuster against citizens here or would want to be associated with it, if they did. She wrote of witnessing as a child the "high drama" of filibusters that helped to send her to the Mississippi Delta as a student in the civil rights movement. "Those filibusters sought to maintain a status quo that had been required by the Southern states," Norton wrote. "If successful, a filibuster of our bill would maintain a different status quo required by the Congress of the United States. Regardless of motivation, the effect is the same for citizens denied the right to be even considered for representation in the "People's House," where their own local laws must be approved, and citizens also are denied the right to a court test where voting rights questions are settled." Norton gave the post-Civil War Republicans credit for giving D.C. home rule, a delegate and equal civil rights until Reconstruction, when Congress ended democracy here and the city "became a segregated city governed by the Congress through three appointed commissioners." The full text of Norton's letter follows.
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An Open Letter to Members of the United States Senate from
Eleanor Holmes Norton, an American Citizen Living in the Nation's Capital
September 17, 2007
You will be casting a historic vote Tuesday to either filibuster or to allow a voting rights bill for seats only in the House of Representatives for the District of Columbia and for Utah to be considered by the Senate. I am writing as an American citizen who was born and raised in the District in the third generation of the Holmes family. Today, citizens like me who have never had representation struggle alongside residents who arrived yesterday only to lose it. The loss is the same for all of us. I do not believe that most members of the Senate are aware of the roots of the District's non-voting status or would want to be associated with the filibusters and filibuster threats that have denied many citizens of the nation's capital their rights for more than two centuries. I believe, instead, that most Senators would want to make a clean break from that history, as they did last year when the Senate passed the 1965 Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006. Even those Senators who doubt our bill's constitutionality, would not want to be recorded today, I believe, in support of a filibuster against even considering a vote for American citizens who live in the capital of the United States.
I have been so saturated with today's challenges that I hadn't much thought about my childhood here until the specter of a filibuster of our voting rights bill recalled memories of the great progress we have made as a nation had submerged deep in the recesses of my mind. When I was a kid, the District was not a very political town because the city had no elected officials and no democratic institutions. But Senate filibusters were high drama. Senators who chose to filibuster had to previously hold the floor in hopes of killing the bill. The filibusters that seized the nation's attention sought to deny equal rights to African Americans. These filibusters stirred my youthful consciousness and were part of what sent me to Mississippi as a student in the civil rights movement. Those filibusters sought to maintain a status quo that had been required by the southern states. If successful, a filibuster of our bill would maintain a different status quo required by the Congress of the United States. Regardless of motivation, the effect is the same for citizens who are denied the right to be even considered for representation in the "People's House," where their own local laws must be approved, and citizens also are denied the right to a court test where voting rights questions are settled.
Republicans who controlled the Congress after the Civil War gave the District home rule, its first delegate, and equal civil rights. With the end of Reconstruction and the Tilden-Hayes Compromise that withdrew federal troops from the South, Congress ended the city's democracy in its infancy in 1878, and "the national government took the line of the Deep South. . ."** The District became a segregated city governed by the Congress through three appointed commissioners.
My great grandfather, Richard Holmes, was a runaway slave living in the District in 1862 when Congress emancipated slaves here nearly a year before the Emancipation Proclamation. That was a unique moment in the District's history. Today, 144 years later I ask Senators to act in the same tradition and cast another vote for freedom for Americans who choose to live in the capital of our country.
Sincerely,
Eleanor Holmes Norton
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Norton Releases Separate Support Letters for D.C.'s Vote to Republican and Democratic Senators from D.C. Native, Brooke, First African American Elected by Popular Vote to U.S. Senate
September 13, 2007
Washington, DC-Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released two separate letters to Senate Republicans and Democrats from former Senator Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts to 100 senators of both parties asking them to vote for S.1257, the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act expected on the Senate floor next week. Brooke, the first ever popularly elected Black senator and a native Washingtonian, addressed his fellow Republicans as a proud, life-long Republican, writing, "The Republican Party allowed me not only to represent others, but to be represented in the Congress of the United States. I am asking you to do the same for the tax paying citizens of my home town and...to give both Utah and the District of Columbia new House seats. Brooke, who wrote in his recent book, Bridging the Divide, about growing up in his segregated hometown without voting rights or self government, said in his letter to Republican Senators that the "Republican party . . . was first in the willingness to break ancient barriers" and that he "was able to run and win because the Republican Party never wavered because of my race in a state where only two percent of the residents were Black." He wrote that he hoped the Senators would not hesitate now to grant his hometown a vote in the House.
Brooke also wrote to Democrats and praised them for working with a Republican president to give the District home rule and the delegate vote in the 1970s and for bringing the bill out of committee with a strong vote in June. "I was not able to help achieve representation in the Congress, when I served, for citizens of the city where I was born and nurtured," Brooke wrote, and asked Democrats to follow the 9-1 committee vote with a vote for S. 1257 in the Senate. Norton said that she was pleased Brooke chose to write to all 100 senators of both parties. She said that she is especially grateful that Brooke, at 87, has been assisting her and D.C. residents for many months, pressing Congress "to give these tax-paying citizens the full representation in the ‘People's House' that they deserve," as he wrote in his letter to Democrats. Brooke's letter to Republicans noted the strong leadership of Republican Utah Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) as leaders of the Senate effort. The former Senator wrote in both letters of the 1965 Voting Rights reauthorization bill last year that, "in important ways, the Voting Rights Act Reauthorization of 2006 and the D.C. Voting Rights Act of 2007 are equivalent in their historic purpose and deep meaning," by extending long deserved voting rights. Norton said Brooke, a native Washingtonian who attended D.C. public schools and Howard University, is concerned about rumors of a possible filibuster by his party. Brooke became a Lincoln Republican when Democrats were filibustering civil rights bills. He told Norton that he will be making calls to Republican Senators asking them to preserve his party's historic civil rights traditions by supporting S. 1257 when it comes to the Senate floor next week. The full texts of both letters follow.
Dear Senator:
I have written to Republican Members of the Senate as a life-long Republican and a native Washingtonian, who was privileged to serve as the first African American elected by popular vote to the U.S. Senate (Massachusetts1967-1979). I am writing to Democrats as well to thank you for your long support of voting rights and home rule for my hometown, and to ask you to cast your vote for S. 1257, the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007.
I was born and raised in the District when it was as segregated as other Southern cities, including the city's public schools, and I was educated at Howard University. We had no local or federal rights, even to govern ourselves or to vote for President, and no one to represent our concerns in the Congress. A Democratic Congress changed all of that when Democrats and a Republican president granted the citizens of the nation's capital home rule and a delegate to the House. Now Senators have another historic opportunity to give these tax-paying citizens the full representation in the "People's House" that they deserve.
At 87 years of age, I have had rare privileges and honors as an American citizen that few Americans, particularly residents of the District, have enjoyed. I particularly appreciate the bill recently passed by the Senate seeking for me the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest congressional honor. A man cannot help but be overwhelmed and feel undeserving of such a high honor from his peers. However, although I have received the full rights and rewards of a rich life, I was not able to help achieve representation in the Congress, where I served, for the citizens of the city where I was born and nurtured. Witnessing the District of Columbia obtain the right to be represented in the House would add historic meaning to this session of the House and would have uniquely personal meaning to me as well.
I lived in the District until I joined the Army and was proud to serve as a combat captain during WWII. However, I had to leave my hometown to become a Member of Congress and even to be represented. The experience of growing up in a segregated city with none of our nation's most basic democratic rights and serving in our segregated Armed forces helps explain why the pending D.C. House Voting Rights Act is so important to me personally. In important ways, The Voting Rights Reauthorization of 2006 and the D.C. House Voting Rights Act of 2007 are equivalent in their historic purposes and deep meaning. Both bills are the same in extending long-denied congressional voting rights to African Americans and others.
I am deeply grateful for the strong support for the bill by the Democratic leadership and for the Democrats and Republicans who voted the bill out of committee 9-1, with every Democrat supporting S. 1257 along with three Republicans. I hope that you join them and vote for S. 1257 when it comes to the floor.
I continue to be grateful for your work and attention to the rights for all Americans.
Sincerely yours,
Edward W. Brooke
United States Senator, Retired
Dear Fellow Republican:
As a proud life-long Republican, an African American, and a native Washingtonian, I was not destined to become the first African American elected to the United States Senate. Yet, I served with some of you as a senator from Massachusetts (1967-1979) because the Republican Party gave me the opportunity not only to run, but also to serve as the nation's first African American attorney general. The Republican Party allowed me not only to represent others but to be represented in the Congress of the United States. I am asking you to do the same for the tax paying citizens of my home town and to vote for passage of S. 1257 to give both Utah and the District of Columbia new house seats. Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Joseph Lieberman are leading the way in the Senate as original co-sponsors, and the entire Utah House and Senate delegation is a co-sponsor of the bill.
At 87 years of age, I have had rare privileges and honors as an American, including the nation's highest honor generously given me two years ago by President George Bush and a bill that has passed the Senate, seeking for me the highest congressional honor, the Congressional Gold Medal. A man cannot help but be overwhelmed and feel undeserving of high honors from the President and his peers. However, although I have received the rewards and rights of a rich life, I was not able to achieve representation in Congress, where I served, for the citizens of the city where I was born and was nurtured. To witness the Senate vote for the right of the District to be represented in the House would be to speak to our roots as a party and would have uniquely personal meaning for me.
In 2006, I was especially proud to watch my party lead the reauthorization of the historic 1965 Voting Rights Act and to see a member of my party, Representative Tom Davis of Virginia, initiate a similar bill for the District of Columbia in the House. This year I saw Republicans join in passing another historic voting rights bill, now before you. The Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 and the DC House Voting Rights Act of 2007 are equivalent in their purposes and their deep meaning. Both bills are the same in extending long-denied congressional voting rights, to a majority Black population and others.
I grew up in the District when it was as segregated as other Southern cities, including the city's public schools, and I was educated at Howard University. We had no local or federal rights, even to govern ourselves or to vote for President, and no one to represent our concerns in the Congress. I did not live elsewhere until I joined the Army and was proud to serve as a combat infantry officer during WWII. The experience of living in a segregated city and of serving in our segregated Armed forces perhaps helps explain why my party's work in the majority on the Voting Rights Act reauthorization last year and on the pending D.C. House Voting Rights Act has been so important to me personally.
I will always be grateful to the Republican Party that strongly supported my candidacies and was first in the willingness to break ancient barriers when Black Americans running for state wide office seemed the stuff of fantasy. I was able to run and win because the Republican Party never wavered because of my race in a state where only two percent of the residents were Black. I hope you will not hesitate now in granting my majority African American hometown a vote in the House of Representatives for the first time in the two centuries of the city's existence.
I am deeply grateful to you for your work and attention to the rights of all Americans. I ask for your vote for S 1257.
Sincerely yours,
Edward W. Brooke
United States Senator, Retired
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Norton Much Encouraged by Historic Senate Vote Tuesday
September 12, 2007
Washington, DC-Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that she is delighted that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) today filed for cloture on the D.C. House Voting Rights Act. A cloture vote will take place on next Tuesday to limit debate that, when successful, allows the bill to move to the Senate floor for a full vote. "The only way to stop it now is for opponents to reach back to the old and much discredited Senate practice of filibustering voting rights and civil rights bills," Norton said. "I am grateful to the three Republican Senators who voted with Democrats to move the bill out of committee with a 9 to 1 bipartisan vote, and to the Republicans who said they will vote on the bill on the floor. I know that D.C. residents also will be elated that in just days we will be taking another giant and historic step toward getting a full House vote."
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Norton in Strategy Meeting with Hatch, Lieberman and Davis
to Stress Civil Rights and Racial Roots of D.C. Status -- July 27, 2007
Washington DC-Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today attended a critical strategy meeting that enhanced prospects for Senate passage of the D.C.-Utah voting rights bill with the bill's lead sponsors, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), in Hatch's office. All four agreed that critical to passage is enhancing recognition that the "D.C.-Utah bill is the civil rights act of 2007 and that a civil rights bill must never be filibustered in this country again." The four agreed on strategies that could get floor time for the bill next week, if a gap develops, and for use of the August break to assure passage if floor time before recess proves impossible before recess. Norton described the meeting as "truly exciting in its content and in the sheer determination shown by the lead sponsors." Hatch, who enjoys considerable respect and influence among his Republican colleagues, has taken important leadership in heading off a filibuster and getting Republican votes. Lieberman, who has championed S.1257 as an independent Democrat, is the main liaison to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and is especially valuable for his ability to work with both sides in the Senate. Continuing his lead role on the bill since its inception almost five years ago, Davis has been meeting with Senators and is using "the special radar and contacts that he cultivated when he chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee," Norton said. All along, Hatch and Lieberman have been caucusing among themselves and having conversations with other senators, with the result that the bill appears close to beating any attempted filibuster.
"D.C. residents need to know that they have truly committed friends in the three colleagues I met with this morning," Norton said. "Senators Hatch and Lieberman want their Senate colleagues to face the civil rights and racial roots of the city's status that trace to the 19th century and were not eliminated until a delegate was authorized in the Home Rule Act of 1974 about 30 years ago." She said that the Senate and House maintained D.C. as a segregated city until the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision and that the Senate sponsors want to make sure their colleagues understand the implications of a filibuster in the context of the role they have always played in the city's status and subsequent changes.
Reid Assures Norton on D.C. Voting Rights Bill -- July 25, 2007
Washington, DC- Following discussions this morning with the office of Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on timing for the D.C. Voting Rights Act, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) attended a noon vote coalition rally in an upbeat mood today in the Senate to encourage supporters "to keep the huge momentum in favor of the bill strong." Norton said that although she was disappointed that the D.C.-Utah bill was not on the list of bills scheduled before the August recess, she remains very encouraged and optimistic following discussions with Leader Reid's office this morning She said that the delay will not harm the bill because of the unprecedented momentum S. 1257 has garnered here and around the country, and because of Leader Reid's strong commitment. "Harry Reid has long supported our rights and he's a man of his word. His job is to find room amidst a crowded backlog of bills that must pass and our job is to keep pushing for floor time," Norton said. Advocates have achieved such a healthy majority for passage in the Senate and already may have the necessary votes to head off a filibuster, should that prove necessary. The bill is on "a determined path to passage," Norton said. "I am delighted that Harry Reid's continued strong commitment is a part of that determination."
Norton said that gaps in Senate scheduling could occur next week that might still make consideration possible. However, she said, she was no more concerned that this delay would harm the bill's strong momentum than she was about the failed attempt by House Republicans to defeat the voting rights bill by forcing a vote on the city's gun laws. That was an attempt to kill the bill, not a calendar delay. Despite the Republican procedural maneuver, the House bill went forward to be approved by a vote of 241- 177 in April, followed by 9 - 1 committee passage in the Senate in June.
"The civil rights coalition, prominent Americans, and elected officials, including the entire Utah Senate delegation, and according to national polls, the American people themselves, have given our bill the momentum it needs for passage. If we do not get to the Senate floor next week, we will use the August recess to make a September floor vote all but inevitable," Norton said.
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Norton Applauds Breakthrough Senate Testimony and Hatch Commitment to D.C. Voting Rights Bill -- May 23, 2007
Washington, DC -- For the second time, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) testified at a Senate hearing, this time before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the D.C. House voting rights bill today, at the request of Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Constitution Subcommittee Chairman Russell Feingold (D-WI). Norton said after the hearing that she was more encouraged than at any point during the more than four years that she has been working for the bill, particularly by the testimony of several of today’s witnesses and the commentary from the dais of Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (R), a former chair of the Judiciary Committee. Norton said that Hatch gave compelling testimony for D.C. as well as for his home state at the prior hearing and said as much today, but he indicated, as well, that he would do everything he could to get the bill passed.
Norton was particularly heartened by the testimony of Utah Attorney General Mark L. Shurtleff, who spent the greater part of his time testifying about why the District should get a vote. Like Norton, he pointed to the violation of equal rights in the denial to D.C., elaborating from the Dred Scott decision. The Congresswoman also testified about the racial roots of the denial of the vote here. The District did not have a Black majority until the late 1950s, she said, but the city’s significant African American population was a major factor in the denial of voting representation, as well as the denial of home rule. Norton said in her testimony, “The denial of representation was part of that pattern of racial discrimination that differed only, but significantly, in the fact that whites suffered the same fate.” She testified that one southern Senator said, “The Negroes . . . flocked in . . . and there was only one way out…and that was to deny…suffrage entirely to every human being in the District.” In what Norton called “particularly illuminating testimony,” Richard P. Bress, a law firm partner here and a former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, rebutted Jonathan Turley, the George Washington University Law professor who has repeatedly testified against the constitutionality of the District’s bill because D.C. is not a state. Bress was able to demonstrate that Turley’s view was based on snippets of opposition from anti-Federalists during the debate of the framers. Bress methodically showed that the record indicates no intention to deny a vote to residents of the capital once the District’s population reached 30,000.
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May 23, 2007
Washington, DC -- For the second time, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) testified at a Senate hearing, this time before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the D.C. House voting rights bill today, at the request of Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Constitution Subcommittee Chairman Russell Feingold (D-WI). Norton said after the hearing that she was more encouraged than at any point during the more than four years that she has been working for the bill, particularly by the testimony of several of today’s witnesses and the commentary from the dais of Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (R), a former chair of the Judiciary Committee. Norton said that Hatch gave compelling testimony for D.C. as well as for his home state at the prior hearing and said as much today, but he indicated, as well, that he would do everything he could to get the bill passed.
Norton was particularly heartened by the testimony of Utah Attorney General Mark L. Shurtleff, who spent the greater part of his time testifying about why the District should get a vote. Like Norton, he pointed to the violation of equal rights in the denial to D.C., elaborating from the Dred Scott decision. The Congresswoman also testified about the racial roots of the denial of the vote here. The District did not have a Black majority until the late 1950s, she said, but the city’s significant African American population was a major factor in the denial of voting representation, as well as the denial of home rule. Norton said in her testimony, “The denial of representation was part of that pattern of racial discrimination that differed only, but significantly, in the fact that whites suffered the same fate.” She testified that one southern Senator said, “The Negroes . . . flocked in . . . and there was only one way out…and that was to deny…suffrage entirely to every human being in the District.” In what Norton called “particularly illuminating testimony,” Richard P. Bress, a law firm partner here and a former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, rebutted Jonathan Turley, the George Washington University Law professor who has repeatedly testified against the constitutionality of the District’s bill because D.C. is not a state. Bress was able to demonstrate that Turley’s view was based on snippets of opposition from anti-Federalists during the debate of the framers. Bress methodically showed that the record indicates no intention to deny a vote to residents of the capital once the District’s population reached 30,000.
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Norton, Congressional Leaders and the District Honor Sen. Brooke, D.C. Native, African American Pioneer, D.C. Vote Supporter -- February 12, 2007
Washington, DC-- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), other members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation and leaders of the House and Senate today announced that they are introducing a bill for Congress to award former Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke, a native Washingtonian and the first popularly elected African American U.S. senator, the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor awarded by Congress.
Also on Monday as part of the “Campaign for the D.C. House Vote Now,” Mayor Adrian Fenty presented Brooke with the Key to the City for his contributions to the District, including his vocal support of D.C. voting rights. Norton said that Brooke, who lives in Florida, has given his active support and help in moving the House vote bill and getting it enacted early in this session.
Brooke, a graduate of Dunbar High School and Howard University, is in the District for a series of book signings and events to promote his autobiography, “Bridging the Divide: My Life.” His appearances included a taping last Friday for “Book TV” on C-SPAN, on which Norton interviewed the former senator for broadcast next month. Earlier, Norton said, “I am excited about interviewing a national pioneer and hometown hero, and hope to give viewers insight into his groundbreaking achievements, not only as the first popularly elected African American senator, but also as a man who broke through numerous racial barriers to provide enduring service to the nation.”
The Congressional Gold Medal initially was bestowed on military leaders when it was started in 1776. Since then the medal also has been given to Sir Winston Churchill and Tony Blair; civil rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Height and Rosa Parks; actors Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra; humanitarians Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa; and athletes Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson, among others.
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Norton Casts 1st Eight Votes in the Committee of the Whole on her Way to Full Vote
February 8, 2007
Washington, DC—After more than a decade since the delegate vote was revoked, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today cast her first vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole since the Democrats returned the vote to Norton, delegates from the four territories and the resident commissioner from Puerto Rico on January 24, 2007. Norton voted on eight amendments to H.R. 547, the Advanced Fuels Infrastructure Research and Development Act sponsored by Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN), which will help get alternative bio-fuels to consumers more quickly, lower the cost of these fuels and assist retailers in the transition to clean diesel fuels. She is very encouraged by her work with the House leaders on H.R. 328, the District of Columbia Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act to give D.C. the full House vote, and believes it will not be long before she votes on all matters.
“There were eight great amendments for me to cast my first votes,” Norton said, “in light of the priority I attach to energy conservation, alternative fuels and global warming.”
Norton first won the delegate vote in the 103rd Congress after her first term by writing a memo arguing that the vote in the Committee of the Whole was comparable to delegates voting in traditional committees. Republicans were unsuccessful in challenging this vote in federal district and appellate courts. They revoked delegate voting upon taking power in the 104th session in 1995. Every year since then, even while she fought for full representation in the House and the Senate, Norton has pushed for this partial vote as a temporary step.
The Congresswoman today cast votes on amendments offered by Democrats and Republicans, including a measure by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) to encourage the Environmental Protection Agency to use land grant institutions, historically black colleges and universities, and other minority institutions to conduct research for the study and development program required in the bill; and an amendment by Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL) to require a report on incentives that may spark cost savings in advanced fuels research and development.
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A D.C. House Vote: This Year’s Voting Rights Bill, A Column for the Congressional Black Caucus Newsletter
February 5, 2007
Americans are primed to see D.C. get a seat in the 110th Congress, thanks to the new Democratic control and a four-year national campaign led by national and local civil rights and progressive organizations. Across America today citizens are e-mailing and calling their Senators and Representatives to approve H.R. 328, to give the 650,000 citizens of the District what the bill, “The Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act of 2007,” says-- a vote in the House of Representatives. Of course, D.C. will never give up on achieving representation in both chambers of Congress. Not when we are second in the United States in federal income taxes that support our government. Not when our citizens have served in every war, including the war that gave birth to the Republic. “No taxation without representation,” for which the Revolutionary War is best known, is a reality for all Americans except those who live in the shadow of the Capitol. However, only representation in the House is possible now.
The bipartisan bill, co-sponsored with Representative Tom Davis (R-VA), would give a new seat to Republican Utah and Democratic D.C., bowing to a virtual mandate of history. Congress has always insisted on political balance before increasing representation, most recently with Alaska and Hawaii. In the 19th century a free state could not enter the Union unless a slave state also entered. Utah barely missed getting a new seat in the last census and sued unsuccessfully all the way to the Supreme Court. Utah felt overdue for a seat by almost 10 years. D.C. is past due by more than 200 years. The two jurisdictions are an odd but perfect match that will not come again soon for D.C. voting rights.
In a step towards D.C.’s full House vote, the House has just restored the delegate floor vote that allows the District and the four territories to cast a final floor vote on some House business, but not the final vote on passage of legislation. I first won this vote as I entered my second term by writing a legal memorandum that showed that this expansion could be done by House rules. Although the territories, unlike D.C., do not pay federal income taxes, they are not colonial American citizens (and people of color) who serve disproportionately in America’s wars. Astonishingly, however, when Republicans took control of the House, they withdrew the delegate vote for these Americans. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and House Democrats chose the only honorable course by restoring delegate voting that had been approved by the courts.
Now, House Democratic leaders are working with me to take the citizens who live in the nation’s capital the rest of the way to D.C.’s full House vote. The delegate vote, D.C’s first on the House floor was a real breakthrough in 1993. After eight full terms serving the only citizens who meet every obligation of full citizenship, the District is confident that we are on the way to the full House vote.
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Norton Asks for Floor Vote on D.C. Voting Rights by March at Meeting with Democratic Congressional Leaders
January 26, 2007
Washington, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that she was encouraged by a very good meeting yesterday with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) on scheduling congressional consideration of H.R. 328, the District of Columbia Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act. Norton told the leaders that her request for a mark-up in February and floor consideration no later than March would also benefit the calendar, which will fill quickly with appropriations and committee business by early spring. The congressional calendar is lean now because committees are just being organized and have not had time to have the hearings necessary to develop significant bills. Hoyer agreed on a March goal, but said that meetings would be necessary with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), as well, to get final agreement. A number of issues were discussed at the meeting which the Congresswoman believes are already dealt with in the bill or can be addressed without difficulty. She spent four years addressing Democratic leadership concerns about the bill, which Speaker Pelosi co-sponsored in the last Congress. Norton said that she was prepared to engage in "the same careful problem-solving effort to get the bill to the floor by March."
The Congresswoman said that increasing anxiety in the District about any significant delay in the bill concerns the uniqueness of the Utah-D.C. scenario and the approaching census, which will remove this unique bipartisan opportunity. Analysts report that it is highly unlikely that there will soon again be a Republican district like Utah that data shows is definitely due the next seat, willing to be paired with D.C. Utah has nursed almost 10 years of resentment at missing out on a new seat and felt so strongly that the state took the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court. Congress has never increased representation without requiring political balance, most recently in the admissions of Hawaii and Alaska to the Union.
Norton said she was confident that the longstanding, high profile Democratic support of D.C. voting rights would bear fruit this year for a seat in the 110th Congress. "I know I speak for the people of my city when I say how deeply we have appreciated the unfailing Democratic support for our rights, from party platforms and presidential leadership to congressional bills and assistance here of all kinds," she said. The Congresswoman said that while her efforts in the Congress are expected, Mayor Adrian Fenty has offered important leadership in channeling the concerns of city residents in the recent announcement of his "Campaign for the D.C. Vote Now." In subsequent conversations, she said the Mayor told her that the first effort in his campaign would be the rally and lobby day he would lead with DC Vote and the civil rights coalition on February 15th.
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Norton and Davis Reintroduce D.C. Vote Bill
January 9, 2007
Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Tom Davis (R-VA) today kept their promise to reintroduce the Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act as their first bill of the 110th Congress, introducing the same bill with the four-district plan. Davis, the original author of the bill, was the chair of the Committee when he worked with Norton for four years to get Republican and Democratic agreement on the current bill to give one vote to the mainly Democratic District of Columbia and another to the largely Republican state of Utah. The bill also would permanently increase the size of the House from 435 to 437 members.
"Democrats have long been outspoken in their commitment to D.C. voting rights, and I appreciate their unwavering support" Norton said. "The political history of our country demonstrates that additional representation has been granted only on the basis of exact political equivalence, assuring neither benefit nor disadvantage to either party. The people of the District of Columbia and our civil rights and civic allies have therefore concluded that there can be no serious attempt to achieve the vote for our citizens that ignores precedents woven so tightly into our history. We are grateful for the rare opportunity the Utah-D.C. bill offers to follow the unerring path to the vote laid out by American history. Our vote was long past due in the 109th Congress. We're in overtime in the 110th."
Davis first brought the idea to Norton after Utah narrowly missed getting a seat following the last census and failed to get the Supreme Court to rule in the state's favor. Davis said, "It is simply inexcusable that residents of the District of Columbia, the Capital of the Free World, the city that symbolizes our grand experiment in representative democracy - that these citizens do not have a representative with a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives, the People's House. We got further than anyone ever had before last session, and this time, we're going to push it over the top. It's a matter of fairness. It always has enjoyed bipartisan support. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was a cosponsor last time, and we're hoping for her continued support."
The two regional colleagues will proceed on the win-win basis that came close to securing passage in the 109th Congress. Norton said that in the spirit of the partnership promised by the new Democratic House majority, she was optimistic that Democrats will see the bill as a historic opportunity to make good on promises for voting rights and equality for the people of the District of Columbia.
A similar bill approved by the Committee on Government Reform last May called for the additional seat in Utah to be at-large until the 2010 census. The bill then was referred to the Judiciary Committee, where then-Chairman James F. Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI) insisted that Utah adopt a redistricting plan that allowed for four seats before he would approve the bill. Utah's legislature met in early December and quickly adopted a four-seat plan, which met with Sensenbrenner's approval. However, House leadership declined to address the issue in the closing days of the 109th Congress.
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Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act Passes Government Reform Committee 29-4 May 18, 2006
March Agreement for New House Bill Met Norton's Four Critical Conditions
1. Mark-up not only in Rep. Tom Davis’ Government Reform Committee, but also in the Judiciary Committee, the committee of jurisdiction.
2. Seat in the state of Utah to be at large to assure no political party advantage or disadvantage through redistricting.
3. Add two seats instead of one to assure that no state loses a seat as a result of this bill. Instead, the bill provides an additional seat.
4. Allow a vote on Norton’s No Taxation without Representation Act for House and Senate seats before the vote on the House bill to send message that D.C. will never give up the fight for equal representation in both houses.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
From Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
Roll Call, February 13, 2006
Thank you for supporting a House vote for D.C. (N.J. and D.C., February 1, 2006)– and for reminding everyone that we had won that right, at least in the Committee of the Whole, by rule. Shamefully, Republicans erased even this right, although approved by the federal courts, when they took control in 1995. We won this first-ever floor vote for D.C. residents after I submitted a legal memorandum to the House, perhaps the best evidence that, like Roll Call, I am always on a hunt for any “feasible alternative” to obtain equal rights for my constituents.
Like any Member who has the major responsibility for an issue, I have my own bill, H.R. 398 – the No Taxation Without Representation Act, that I am urging Members to cosponsor. This bill expresses what D.C. taxpaying citizens, who have fought and died in every U.S. war, deserve and what D.C.’s only Member of Congress has an obligation to sponsor. However, I would welcome a House vote, and Rep. Tom Davis and I have worked closely together on ways to surmount the considerable obstacles that still stand in the way of his House-only D.C. voting rights bill that pairs Democratic D.C. with Republican Utah for new House seats.
Rep. Tom DeLay’s mid-decade Texas redistricting spoiled the opportunity for significant support from Democrats for the Davis bill, for fear of another round of partisan redistricting. However, the real obstacles have had nothing to do with Democrats. The issues are too numerous to list here but include two factors that unintentionally destroy the bill’s most attractive Utah-D.C. parity feature – 1) that only D.C. retains its vote after the next census, and 2) Utah’s population growth now qualifies that state for two seats on its own. Moreover, there are objections even among some local Utah Republican legislators to a congressional mandate that the Utah seat be at-large to avoid a redistricting controversy, as well as a slew of other structural and political issues. Most important, the considerable political will and cooperation it would take to build on Rep. Davis’ innovative bill has been blocked by the Republican leadership, so anxious about the margin of their majority that they could not be less interested in making this a win-win proposal.
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