Securing Rights for D.C.
A D.C. Vote on the House Floor
Norton, a constitutional lawyer, won a vote for the District in the Committee of the Whole in 1993, the first time in 200 years that D.C. residents had a vote on most business on the House floor. Republicans took the House in 1994 and changed House rules to rescind delegate voting. Norton has fought each Congress since then for a return of the District's House floor vote.
First-Ever D.C. Statehood Vote
Norton mounted a historic two-day House floor debate for Statehood in 1993 and persuaded nearly two-thirds of her Democratic colleagues to vote for D.C. statehood. This was the first statehood vote in Congress in our history.
Senatorial Rights on Federal Nominations for D.C.
Norton asked for and received senatorial courtesy from President Bill Clinton to name D.C. federal District Court judges and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia for the first time in the history of the city. Almost all of the judges now seated came through Norton, who named a committee of D.C. residents to advise her on appointments. Norton also asked Clinton to appoint Eric Holder and Wilma Lewis, the first black U.S. attorneys in the city's history. Ms. Lewis also was the first woman.
Full Voting Rights for D.C. Residents, Hearings in House and Senate, and Voting Rights Lobby Days
Norton has pressed congressional voting rights to the highest level in years. She got Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT), the 2000 Democratic V.P. standard bearer, to be the Senate sponsor of the No Taxation Without Representation Act, Norton's D.C. voting rights bill, and to hold a Senate hearing on the bill following the first citywide Voting Rights Lobby Day, led by major civil rights organizations. The bill was voted out of committee for the first time in almost 30 years.
Budget Autonomy: the District's Right to Spend its own Budget without Coming to Congress
Because of Norton's leadership, the Senate has passed the first D.C. budget autonomy bill.
State Function Costs to Federal Government
Norton guided legislation through Congress for the federal assumption of $5 billion in unfunded pension liability foisted upon the District by the federal government and transfer to the federal government of billions of dollars in state function costs that D.C. but no other city had to carry. Without removal of these costs, totaling over $1 billion annually, and increasing each year, D.C. could not have risen from insolvency.
Return of Statutory Home Rule
Norton won the repeal of the Faircloth attachment to the Revitalization Act in 2000, instituted during the control board period, and returned statutory home rule power over agency departments to the Mayor and the City Council.
Increasing Educational Opportunities
Groundbreaking Tuition Bill
Norton got and has since expanded the D.C. College Access Act, which allows D.C. residents to go to any U.S. public college at low in-state tuition rates or to receive a $2,500 stipend to attend any private college in D.C. or the region. Many older students, as well as residents desiring to attend any Historically Black College and University nationwide, have been added.
Funded HBCU Status for UDC
Norton fought for years to achieve funded Historically Black College and University status for our own hometown HBCU, the University of the District of Columbia. She finally achieved this funding, amounting to millions of much needed dollars annually, by attaching a full HBCU funding provision to the new D.C. College Access Act.
Unique $5000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
This $5000 federal tax credit has significantly increased homeownership among D.C. residents, attracted new residents and stopped the hemorrhage of taxpayers.
DC-Only Business Tax Breaks
Downtown D.C. and neighborhoods across the city are bustling with activity because of Norton's D.C.-only tax breaks that she got included in the 1997 Tax Relief Act. Norton has twice successfully pressed the Congress to renew these tax breaks, which provide a $3000 credit for every D.C. resident employed, zero capital gains taxation, and $15 million for tax exempt bonds for construction and renovation of D.C. businesses.
Southeast Federal Center Converted for D.C. Economic Development and Revenue
Norton wrote a first of its kind bill, the Southeast Federal Center (SEFC) Public Private Development Act, which allows private sector development of 55 acres of valuable federal land near the Anacostia River and tax revenue to D.C. from this land. This development, along with the location of the new Department of Transportation headquarters with 7,000 jobs also at the SEFC and 10,000 jobs Norton brought to the Navy Yard, have been huge catalysts for economic development that have transformed the M Street corridor.
Keeping Jobs in D.C.
Norton sits and votes on all of her committees, including the Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management Subcommittee, on which she serves as the lead (ranking) Democrat. Her work on this subcommittee has attracted and kept billions of dollars in federal jobs and economic development in D.C. She successfully fought an attempt by some regional officials to take both the SEC and the ATF to the suburbs. Headquarters for both now are under construction in D.C. Only after a major fight by Norton did Congress fund its share of the New York Avenue Metro stop that is central to the development of the New York Avenue corridor. Norton also is the author of the Congressional Convention Center and MCI Center bond authorization bills - the twin pillars of the revitalization of downtown.
Getting Jobs for D.C. Residents
Norton has negotiated a unique landmark agreement with the General Services Administration that D.C. residents must be used on all federal construction and renovation projects.
Fighting Crime
Increasing Public Safety with 400 Federal Police Assisting MPD
For the first time in U.S. History, Norton has gotten federal police to help M.D.P. patrol our neighborhoods. The largest group of federal agency police force officers, the Federal Protective Service, is now assisting the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), pursuant to Norton's Police Coordination Act. The FPS joined four other federal police forces already working under the Norton bill, including Amtrak Police, National Zoological Police, the FBI Police, and the U.S. Defense Protection Service. . An earlier bill requires the Capitol Police to patrol areas of S.E., N.E. and S.W. near the Capitol.
D.C. Gun Laws Saved
Norton has repeatedly driven back bills to repeal the District's gun ban laws.
Tax Free Pension Benefits for Families of Slain Police and Firefighters
In 1997, Norton achieved passage of her Officer Brian Gibson Tax Free Pension Act, named for a slain D.C. police officer, providing tax-free pension benefits to the families of law enforcement officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty here and throughout the country.
Responding to Terrorism
Keeping D.C. Safe from Terrorism with Federal Funding
Following the devastating attacks on the United States in 2001, Norton fought successfully to bring over $200 million in anti-terrorism funds to D.C. ($172 million for D.C. government; $39.1 million for Metro).
Annual Federal Funding for Policing Demonstrations
Norton's Public Safety Reimbursement Act, a bill to compensate the District for police and other costs incurred during federal events and demonstrations, is now funded annually.
Succeeding in her Relentless Drive to Keep D.C. Open
With the District's tourism and economy seriously hurt, Norton, a member of the aviation sub-committee, led the fight to reopen National Airport and to get National back to 100% capacity; prevent the closure of Independence and Constitution Avenues; get Capitol tours resumed; open the White House to tours for school groups; and open the National Tree Lighting Ceremony to the public.
Protecting Civil Rights
Writing the First Racial Profiling Bill Passed in Congress
As a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Norton got her bill for grants to states who write strong racial profiling laws included in the 2004 Transportation bill.
Reversing Ten Year Anti-Gay Domestic Partnership Ban
Refusing to give up each year, Norton led a successful fight to permit the District to spend local funds to carry out its domestic partnership law for the first time since its passage a decade ago. This victory joins Norton's successful effort to save the District's needle exchange program from congressionally imposed extinction.
Establishing the D.C. Commission on Black Men and Boys for Action
Norton's D.C. Commission on Black Men and Boys, composed of men with credibility with men, has held standing room only hearings exposing the issues and problems facing black men and boys. Norton established the Commission and approached the nation's preeminent black think tank, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies for help in getting $100,000 in Labor Department funds. She also has gotten the Democratic staff of the House Committee on Government Reform to assist the Commission in producing a D.C. Action Plan on Black Men and Boys.
Norton on Committees That Can Most Help D.C.
Norton is one of the few members of the House of Representatives to be a member of three rather than two committees.
Select Committee on Homeland Security
Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness and Response
Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Subcommittee on Aviation
Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management
Committee on Government Reform (covers D.C. Issues)
Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Reorganization
Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources
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