Norton Thanks Senate Committee for Passing Home-Rule Recognition in Presidential Pension Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. – February 11, 2016 – (RealEstateRama) — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) thanked Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) for working with her to get a home-rule change to the Presidential Allowance Modernization Act, which was passed today by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Ernst’s bill updates the Former President’s Act of 1958, which governs pensions and allowances for former U.S. Presidents and surviving spouses. Norton worked with Ernst to fix the underlying law and bill, which effectively treated the District of Columbia government as a part of the federal government, as it was when the Former President’s Act was passed. Norton’s change resulted in the bill recognizing the District as an independent jurisdiction with a locally elected government, which was established by the Home Rule Act of 1973. Norton got the same home-rule change to the House-passed version of the Presidential Allowance Modernization Act.

“I am grateful for this small, but significant, change,” Norton said. “As we strive for statehood, we cannot allow Congress to ignore our current home-rule right to self-government in any form or to any degree. We are long past the time when we can tolerate any legislation that does not correctly recognize our struggle for self-government.”