Eleanor Holmes Norton

From dKosopedia

Category: District of Columbia Democrats

Eleanor Holmes Norton (Born 4/8/38) is currently the District of Columbia's non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives. She was first elected in 1990.

She is a fully tenured law professor at Georgetown University, with a BA from Antioch College (1960), an MA from Yale University (1963) and an LLB from Yale University (1964).

She was named by President Jimmy Carter as the first woman to chair the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (1977-1981).

Congresswoman Norton led DC through its most serious financial crisis during the 1990's. She helped restructure the financial relationship between the Congress and the District by transferring $5 billion in unfunded pension liability and billions more in state costs to the federal government.

Congresswoman Norton has been a tireless advocate for statehood for the District of Columbia. DC was intended to be under the jurisdiction of the United States Congress in "all cases whatsoever" (United States Constitution Article I, Section 8, Clause 17).

In 1973 Congress passed the Home Rule Act which gave DC the power to elect a mayor and council with powers comparable to a state government yet the battle for control and oversight of the District of Columbia continues.

In November 1993 Congresswoman Norton brought the statehood question to the floor of the House for a two-day debate and a vote. It was defeated 277 to 153. That same year she successfully lobbied for the right to vote on the House floor but in 1995 the vote was taken away by the Republican-controlled Congress.

Even as a "Non-Voting Delegate", Congresswoman Norton has the full vote in House committees and serves on the Committee on Homeland Security, the Government Reform Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

She has served in the Democratic House leadership group and as the Democratic chair of the Women’s Caucus, and she has been a member of the Committee on the Reorganization of the Congress.

Among her many legislative accomplishments was a bill that allows District of Columbia residents to attend any public U.S. college at low in-state tuition.