Eleanor Norton

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, at last night's State of the Union, President Biden had every reason to cite his extraordinary job creation record, the fastest job growth in U.S. history. After only one year in office, the President's American Rescue Plan was at the center of this achievement. Our economic growth was the fastest in nearly 40 years. As a result, the United States had a faster recovery than every other advanced economy in the G7. This progress has been made even while the United States is trying to defeat COVID-19. As chair of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, I was particularly pleased to hear the President emphasize infrastructure, making goods move faster and cheaper, because this can only add to the historic job creation record he has achieved.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2142) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 170 Manhattan Avenue in Buffalo, New York, as the ``Indiana Hunt-Martin Post Office Building''.

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, with no further speakers, I urge passage of H.R. 2142, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this measure.

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2142, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 170 Manhattan Avenue in Buffalo, New York, as the Indiana Hunt-Martin Post Office Building. Mrs. Indiana Hunt-Martin was born on May 30, 1922, in Georgia. Her family moved to western New York when she was in elementary school, and she was one of only two Black students in her high school class. She aspired to a business career but faced limited opportunities and had to take jobs picking peaches and cleaning restrooms at a TNT factory. In 1944, Mrs. Hunt-Martin joined the newly formed Women's Army Corps. The Women's Army Corps had more than 800 Black female soldiers serving in the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, known as the Six Triple Eight. The Six Triple Eight was the only all-African-American Women's Army Corps. Mrs. Hunt-Martin was one of the original 500 African-American female soldiers who were chosen to sail across the Atlantic. The soldiers feared they would not make it alive because they were being chased by a German U-boat. Fortunately, they arrived safely in Liverpool, England. In England, the soldiers were assigned to horrific conditions, staying in dilapidated schools infested with rats and parasites. Regardless of the conditions, the Six Triple Eight cleared a backlog of more than 17 million pieces of mail and packages in only 3 months. They were then relocated to Rouen and Paris, France, where they continued adhering to their motto, ``No mail, low morale.'' In February 1946, the Six Triple Eight returned to a segregated United States. The unit received honorable discharges when they were disbanded but no recognition of their accomplishments. Mrs. Hunt-Martin went on to have a distinguished career at the New York Department of Labor, working there for 41 years and retiring in 1987. She met her husband at the New York Department of Labor, with whom she had a loving daughter, Janice Martin. Throughout the years, Mrs. Hunt-Martin was an active life member of several veterans organizations and mentored young African-American women who chose to serve in the military. She was inducted into the New York State Veterans Hall of Fame and received several service medals. Mrs. Hunt-Martin passed away peacefully on September 21, 2020, at the age of 98. I encourage all of my colleagues to join me in honoring this American hero by naming the post office at 170 Manhattan Avenue as the Indiana Hunt-Martin Post Office Building. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Higgins), the author of this important bill.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce the Salary Transparency Act, which would require employers to provide the salary range for jobs in advertisements and interviews and to existing employees. Several states have enacted laws relating to salary range disclosure, and the federal government should follow their lead and make this a nationwide requirement. Salary transparency is an important tool to combat the gender and race wage gap. Salary secrecy facilitates both intentional and unintentional pay discrimination and perpetuates the wage gap. Studies have consistently shown that when women negotiate for their salaries, they negotiate for less than similarly situated men. Frequently, this is because the salary they request is a certain percentage higher than their current salary. Because women on average make less than men, this practice perpetuates the wage gap. The same is true for people of color, who earn less on average than their White counterparts. Requiring employers to disclose the salary range for a position will help eliminate this harmful portion of the negotiation and lead to a reduction in the wage gap for women and minorities. This is the third pay equity bill I have introduced this Congress. My Pay Equity for All Act, which passed the House last year as part of the Paycheck Fairness Act, would prohibit employers from asking job applicants about their salary history, and my Fair Pay Act would require that men and women doing comparable work be paid comparable wages. I urge my colleagues to support this important bill.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I rise to ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, which held a virtual festival on February 19, 2022, in celebration of Black History Month. The Association for the Study of African American Life and History was established on September 9, 1915, by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a historian and journalist who is regarded as the father of Black History Month. The Association's mission is to promote, research, preserve, interpret and disseminate information about Black life, history and culture to the global community. The Association hosts events every February honoring the lives and accomplishments of great Black men and women throughout history. It also publishes journals and magazines, including the Journal of African American History, which showcases original scholarly articles on all aspects of the African American experience. The theme for the Association's festival celebrating Black History Month this year is Black Health and Wellness. This theme acknowledges not only the legacy of Black scholars and medical practitioners in Western medicine, but also other ways of healing used throughout the African Diaspora. This year's theme considers activities, rituals and initiatives that Black communities have carried out to be healthy. Madam Speaker, again, I ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and its vital role in establishing Black History Month.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce the United States Colored Troops Congressional Gold Medal Act, which would award the Congressional Gold Medal to the African Americans who served with Union forces during the Civil War. Approximately 200,000 African American men served in the Union Army and 19,000 African American men served in the Union Navy. I am proud to present this overdue expression of our national appreciation for these remarkable individuals. Senator Cory Booker has introduced the companion bill. Since the colonial era, African Americans have served the United States in times of war. While African American men served in the Navy since its establishment, there was resistance to enlisting them to take up arms for the Union Army at the start of the Civil War. It was not until January 1, 1863, when President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, that the Union Army was ordered to receive African American men. On May 22, 1863, the United States War Department issued General Order Number 143, which established the Bureau of Colored Troops for the recruitment and organization of regiments of the Union Army composed of African American men, called the United States Colored Troops (USCT). Leaders such as Frederick Douglass encouraged African Americans to enlist to advance the cause of citizenship: ``Once let the [B]lack man get upon his person the brass letter, `U.S.', let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on [E]arth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship,'' wrote Douglass. African American sailors constituted a significant segment of the Union Navy, making up 20 percent of the Navy's total enlisted force. Although there were rank restrictions on African Americans in the Navy before the Civil War, this policy changed after the establishment of the USCT, when the Union Navy started to compete with the Union Army for enlistment of African Americans. Yet, in practice, most African Americans could not advance beyond the lowest ranks of ``boy'' and ``landsman.'' In the Union Army, USCT fought at Milliken's Bend, Louisiana; in Petersburg, Virginia; and in Nashville, Tennessee, among other sites. The USCT at first were paid less, were given used uniforms and poor equipment and could never become officers. Many USCT were assigned as guards on fortifications throughout the Union, including the Defenses of Washington, which, by 1865, was one of the most heavily fortified cities in the world. During the Civil War, African American women were not allowed to formally enlist as soldiers or sailors, though they served as nurses, cooks, spies and scouts for the Union Army and the Union Navy. For generations after the Civil War, the contributions of the African Americans who served with Union forces were excluded from historical memory. Not until Public Law No. 102-412, which I sponsored and which authorized the establishment of a memorial on federal land to honor African Americans who served with Union forces during the Civil War, were they officially commemorated. This memorial, located in the District of Columbia, features a bronze statue of soldiers, an African American sailor and family, and is surrounded by The Wall of Freedom, which lists the names of the members of the USCT. Patriots and heroes who rose in service to a nation that would not fully recognize them, the African Americans who served the Union during the Civil War deserve our recognition for their contributions to the grant of emancipation and citizenship for nearly four million enslaved people and to the preservation of the Union.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the Fairness in Federal Bureau of Prisons Medical Care Act of 2022. This bill would eliminate the copay the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) imposes on inmates when they visit a BOP-provided health care provider. Under current BOP rules, inmates are required to pay a fee for health services of $2.00 per health care visit. While $2.00 may seem insignificant, when inmates earn only 12 to 40 cents per hour on their work assignments, $2 is substantial. That money could better be used to pay for the cost of necessities. Moreover, while copays can reduce unnecessary appointments, we should be encouraging inmates to seek medical care before conditions become worse and more expensive for taxpayers. Early care is much less expensive for the federal government than costly treatment that could have been avoided by a simple health care visit earlier in the process. Under current BOP rules, if an inmate is found responsible through the Disciplinary Hearing Process of having caused another inmate's injury that required a visit to a health care provider, the offending inmate is required to pay the $2 copay for the injured inmate's visit. That rule would not change under my bill. Removing this unnecessary copay would encourage inmates to see a health care provider and receive the treatment they need, and would likely save the federal government money in the long run.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the District of Columbia Courts Improvement Act of 2022. This bill would make several important improvements to the operations of the local District of Columbia courts. Under the D.C. Home Rule Act, D.C. has no authority to amend title 11 of the D.C. Code (relating to organization and jurisdiction of the local D.C. courts). This bill only amends provisions in title 11. First, this bill makes several changes to jury service in the D.C. Superior Court. It ties Superior Court juror pay to the pay jurors receive in federal court. Superior Court jurors are currently paid less than federal jurors. The bill also modernizes juror summonses by giving prospective jurors the option to receive a summons electronically, which will save the court money on postage and staff time. The bill further allows jurors who are 70 years old or older to be excused from jury service if the individual so requests. Next, this bill allows the local D.C. courts to pay attorneys appointed to represent indigent defendants in criminal proceedings and indigent children in delinquency and need of supervision proceedings up to the amount currently allowed in federal court. The local D.C. courts' current rate is $42 per hour less than the federal rate. Similarly, the bill eliminates the $25 hourly rate fixed rate for D.C. Criminal Justice Act investigators and caps the rate at the rate of pay for investigators in the U.S. District Court for D.C. Investigators in federal court in D.C. are currently paid $65 an hour, and up to $75 an hour in death penalty and other complex cases. This bill also would move the appointment and removal of the Register of Wills (ROW) and supervisory responsibilities from the Chief Judge of the Superior Court to the Executive Officer of the D.C. courts. This change would provide the Executive Officer oversight of the personnel for the entire Probate Division, including the ROW, which will improve efficiency in making personnel decisions and in the overall administration of the Probate Division. While both the federal government and the District of Columbia government have statutory authority to give retroactive pay increase to employees, the local D.C. courts do not have this authority. This bill corrects this deficiency. The bill also changes references to the Domestic Violence Unit to the Domestic Violence Division, and updates references to individuals with intellectual disabilities. It would also increase the jurisdictional limit of the Small Claims Branch to $12,000, indexed for inflation. The bill further provides permanent authority to the local D.C. courts to retain bar examination and admission fees, independent gift authority, permanent procurement authority for motor vehicles and express authority to permit other entities to use their facilities. Legislation to improve the operations of the local D.C. Courts has been enacted into law several times over the last decade on a bipartisan basis. I hope this bill will likewise be passed in a bipartisan manner. I urge my colleagues to support this important bill.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize the critically important and remarkable work of Walter Smith, who, after over 20 years, is stepping down as the executive director of the DC Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. At DC Appleseed, Walter has made significant contributions to the District of Columbia on issues ranging from democracy to public health to the environment to education. I have worked closely with Walter in the fight for statehood, congressional voting representation and home rule for D.C. Walter has been one of the intellectual architects of these efforts, leading litigation, testifying before Congress and authoring legal opinions. Walter has led DC Appleseed's important work on HIV/AIDS, early childhood programs, special education, drinking water, the Anacostia River and end-of-life care. Last year, Walter's work led to a settlement with a health insurer that resulted in the creation of a $95 million fund to address public health needs in D.C. Walter has litigated numerous cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the D.C. Court of Appeals. Prior to joining DC Appleseed, Walter served as Special Deputy Corporation Counsel at the D.C. Office of the Corporation Counsel, which is now D.C.'s Office of the Attorney General, where he oversaw major litigation. Prior to his D.C. service, Walter practiced appellate litigation at Hogan Lovells for 16 years, where he served as a partner and was the full-time director of the firm's pro bono practice. Walter also served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy JAG Corps. Walter is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and Harvard Law School. After law school, Walter clerked for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Walter has been recognized for his outstanding legal work. For example, Walter received the President's Award from the Washington Council of Lawyers in 2011, was named one of the ``90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the last 30 years'' in 2007 by the Legal Times and received the D.C. Bar's highest award for public service, the Brennan Award, in 2014. He has also enjoyed an active role in local musical theater, staring in several major productions. I ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the important contributions of Walter Smith, and to congratulate him as he steps down as the executive director of the DC Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today I introduce the Combating Implicit Bias in Education Act. This bill would create a $30 million grant program for schools to train teachers, principals and other personnel on implicit bias with respect to actual or perceived race, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), disability, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. In 2019, a report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that students of color with disabilities received far more severe and frequent punishment than their white counterparts. In 2017, the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality released a report finding that people think of Black girls as more adult-like and less innocent compared to their white peers. This bias has been linked to harsher treatment of Black girls in schools. Students experiencing implicit bias and even outright discrimination face far greater expulsion and suspension rates, fueling the school-to-prison pipeline and widening the student achievement gap. This bill aims to reduce the impact of implicit bias on school discipline and academic achievement through research-based training for education personnel. Under this bill, the Institute of Education Sciences under the Department of Education would be tasked with evaluating and reporting on the effectiveness of the training. I strongly urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of Representatives to join me in celebrating the life of Dr. Edgar Stuart Cahn, who passed away at 86 years of age on January 23, 2022, in Bethesda, Maryland. Edgar Stuart Cahn was born on March 23, 1935, and was raised in an activist household in New York. While earning his undergraduate degree at Swarthmore College, Edgar met and fell in love with fellow student Jean Camper, forming a partnership that would eventually spur substantial social, political and legal change for the benefit of our country's most vulnerable. They married in New York, because, at the time, interracial marriage was illegal in Jean's home state of Maryland. Edgar and Jean both attended Yale Law School, where I met them as a fellow student. Following graduation, they moved to the District of Columbia in 1963, with Jean working as a legal advisor at the Department of State and Edgar as Special Assistant to and speechwriter for Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. They would later work together in the Office of Economic Opportunity, where they, along with Sargent Shriver, established a first-of-its-kind federally funded program that provided legal aid to low-income Americans. This groundbreaking initiative, the predecessor to the Legal Services Corporation, is widely acknowledged as setting a blueprint for legal services and catalyzing what was then the burgeoning field of public interest law. Edgar next undertook a two-year campaign organizing Native American leaders in an effort that led to the end of the official federal policy of terminating Native American tribes, and, with his book Our Brother's Keeper: The Indian in White America, a classic indictment of America's treatment of Native Americans, to enactment of Public Law 93-638, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. Edgar and Jean founded the Antioch School of Law, the predecessor to the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. He served as a member of the UDC law faculty until near the end of his life. Edgar was a visionary in strategies to alleviate poverty, a pioneer in clinical legal education and a dear friend. He led with an unwavering focus to help the most vulnerable among us. He was equally beloved for his kindness, and he will be greatly missed. Madam Speaker, again, I ask the House of Representatives to join me in honoring the incredible life and legacy of Dr. Edgar Stuart Cahn.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I thank the distinguished chair and our ranking member for this bipartisan bill, and I am pleased to speak today in support of the Postal Service Reform Act. Amongst other good policy, this bill would finally get rid of the prefunding of retirement health benefits that has unnecessarily marked the U.S. Postal Service's finances in a way that other Federal agencies are not treated, nor the private sector. Under current law, the Postal Service is required to prefund retiree health benefits for all current and retired employees for 75 years in the future. This is a unique requirement, and I am pleased that this bill that enjoys widespread support would fix this. The bill amends the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act to correct this accounting problem, allowing the Postal Service to save an astonishing $27 billion over the course of 10 years. The accounting problem led to U.S. Postal Service showing losses annually of $5.2 billion since 2007 when the U.S. Postal Service, from 2013 to 2018, instead would have shown a surplus of nearly $4 billion.

Ms. NORTON. I would be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to note my strong concerns about delayed and undelivered mail in the District of Columbia. Throughout most of the pandemic, I have written to the Postal Service to repeatedly raise these concerns. These problems at the Postal Service in the Nation's Capital and throughout the country need immediate attention. I thank Congresswoman Maloney for her leadership on this important issue.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I rise to introduce the Protecting Federal Agencies and Employees from Political Interference Act, which would require an act of Congress before the headquarters for any federal entity located in the National Capital Region (NCR) on today's date may be moved out of the NCR. This bill is cosponsored by Representatives Anthony Brown, Gwen Moore, Jamie Raskin and David Trone. The Trump administration moved the headquarters of agencies out of the NCR to the detriment of employees, their families and the work of these agencies. Employees who work in agency headquarters fulfill the indispensable role of keeping Congress and the president informed of agency activities. Congress cannot do its work to write laws and engage in vital oversight without the unvarnished facts that federal agencies provide. Two years after the Department of Agriculture (USDA) relocated the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to Kansas City, they are operating with roughly 30% fewer employees, with former USDA Director of Communications Matt Herrick admitting that these agencies had ``lost some of the nation's best economists and agricultural scientists.'' Furthermore, nearly 300 employees retired or quit after the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) moved its headquarters to Grand Junction, Colorado. The Biden administration's return of BLM headquarters to our nation's capital is greatly appreciated and will go a long way to restore the valuable expertise that has been lost. While I do not expect the Biden administration to move agencies out of the NCR, this bill would protect against irrational decisions of future presidents. Unless measures like this bill are taken to stop agencies from relocating, the federal government will lose more employees and agencies will be unable to perform critical tasks, including assisting Congress in vital oversight. I strongly urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the District of Columbia Special Elections Home Rule Act. This bill would give the District of Columbia complete authority to set the date of special elections for local offices, like other jurisdictions. This bill simply removes a D.C. Home Rule Act limitation on the District that is not only inconsistent with the self-government granted by the Home Rule Act, but is also counterproductive. This bill follows legislation we got enacted in 2012 that gave the D.C. Board of Elections (``Board'') more flexibility to set the date of special elections for local offices to maximize voter participation. Although we sought complete authority for the District over the scheduling of special elections, the 2012 law, the District of Columbia Special Election Reform Act, did not include this home-rule principle. D.C. should have complete authority over a matter that is unrelated to any other congressional district and has no relevance to Congress. The Home Rule Act originally required the Board to hold special elections on the first Tuesday occurring more than 114 days after a vacancy and allowed the Board to schedule special elections on the same day as the next general election if that election occurred within 60 days from when a special election would otherwise have been held. This inflexibility led to special elections being held on religious holidays and forced the District to hold a special election separate from an upcoming general election, costing the District hundreds of thousands of dollars. The 2012 law requires the Board to hold a special election on a Tuesday occurring between 70 and 174 days after a vacancy. This bill is an important step to perfect home rule for the District. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the District of Columbia Government Title Equality Act. This bill would amend the D.C. Home Rule Act to redesignate the Mayor of the District of Columbia as the Governor, the D.C. Council as the Legislative Assembly, the D.C. Councilmembers as Representatives and the Chair of the Council as the Speaker. The new titles are the ones used in the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth constitution, which the District adopted in 2016 in anticipation of passage of the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which would make D.C. the 51st state. I introduce this bill to highlight to the American people and Members of Congress that there would be a seamless transition to D.C. statehood because D.C. already operates as the functional equivalent of a state, providing state-, county- and city-level services, despite being denied voting representation in Congress and full local self-government. This bill would not change any D.C. legal authorities. This is an important step to provide greater equality for the District, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce a bill that would amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act (HRA) to permit the Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia to transmit legislation to Congress in the form of the Chairman's choosing, including in electronic form. This bill seeks to modernize the method D.C. legislation is transmitted to Congress for the congressional review period. The HRA requires that D.C. legislation be transmitted to Congress for a congressional review period before the legislation can take effect. The legislation takes effect after a review period, unless a resolution of disapproval is enacted into law during the review period. While the HRA is silent on the method that the Chairman must use to transmit the legislation, House and Senate precedent require that the legislation be physically transmitted to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate. Physical transmittal imposes costs in terms of time on the Council, the House and Senate Parliamentarians, the Speaker, the President of the Senate, the House Clerk, the Senate Secretary, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. When the HRA was enacted in 1973, email did not exist. The Council engages in a 12-step process to comply with the physical transmittal requirement: Step 1: Write individualized cover letters. Step 2: The Chairman physically signs the cover letters. Step 3: Arrange a pick-up time of the legislation and cover letters from the Chairman. Step 4: Print two copies of the bill and two copies of the committee report to deliver to the Speaker and to the President of the Senate. Step 5: Arrange a time for delivery to the Speaker's office. Step 6: Arrange a time for delivery to the President of the Senate's office. Step 7: Arrange for two D.C. employees to drive to the Capitol. (Two staffers are required because parking restrictions require a driver and a delivery person.) Step 8: Drive to the Capitol. Step 9: Deliver the legislation to the Speaker's office and get a signed receipt. Step 10: Deliver the legislation to the President of the Senate's office and get a signed receipt. Step 11: Assign the congressional review period based on the receipts. Step 12: File the signed receipts. The aftermath of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol highlighted the burdens of physical transmittal. After temporary fencing was installed around the Capitol, staff from the D.C. Council could not enter the Capitol, delaying the transmittal of legislation until Council staff and congressional staff developed a workaround. Council staff and congressional staff met outside the fencing so the Council staff could physically transmit the legislation. Today, when we live in the era of e-mail, there is no reason to continue to require an increasingly ancient process, when these documents could be transmitted electronically instead, saving a tremendous amount of time and effort. I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense bill.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the District of Columbia National Guard Commanding General Residency Act, which would require the Commanding General of the D.C. National Guard to reside in D.C. Last year, I introduced a substantially similar version of this bill, but I am introducing this version for committee jurisdiction reasons. This bill is even more important now because my provision in the House's National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (NDAA) that would have given the D.C. mayor control over the D.C. National Guard was removed from the enacted NDAA. The D.C. National Guard is a federal entity, and the Commanding General of the D.C. National Guard is a federal official. The Commanding General of the D.C. National Guard is not required to reside in D.C. Congress has justifiably required that certain Federal officials reside in the jurisdiction they serve to ensure in-depth knowledge of the unique issues and challenges residents and Federal officials face. The President controls the D.C. National Guard, including the appointment of the Commanding General. In the states and territories, the governors control their National Guards, the top official in the National Guard is usually appointed by the governor and the top official can be required to live in the jurisdiction. All of these are compelling reasons why the Commanding General of the D.C. National Guard should be required to be a D.C. resident. This bill follows in the footsteps of several other bills that I have introduced that would require certain federal officials serving D.C. exclusively to reside in D.C. My District of Columbia Federal Officials Residency Equality Act (H.R. 3786) would require the Federal district court judges, Federal circuit court judges, the U.S. Attorney and the U.S. Marshals for D.C. to reside in D.C. I have also introduced a bill (H.R. 4393) that would require the Director of the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia and the Director of the District of Columbia Pretrial Services Agency to reside in D.C. With the most recent permanent D.C. National Guard Commanding General, Major General William J. Walker, now serving as the House Sergeant at Arms, leaving a vacancy in the position of Commanding General of the D.C. National Guard, this bill is more timely than ever. Moreover, the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and the events at Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020, are prime examples of why this bill is so important. Residents of the District would feel more confident in the D.C. National Guard if the Commanding General were required to be a D.C. resident. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce the McIntire-Stennis Act District of Columbia Equality Act, which would correct an apparent oversight in the exclusion of the District of Columbia from eligibility for funding under the McIntire-Stennis Act (Act). The Act provides the states and certain territories with formula funding to support state-designated institutions' cooperative forestry research programs. The funding available under this Act assists the states and territories in carrying out forestry research programs at state forestry schools and colleges and developing a trained pool of forest scientists capable of conducting needed forestry research. District of Columbia residents pay full federal taxes, and with few exceptions, the District is treated as a state under federal programs. This Act defines ``State'' to include Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam, whose residents do not pay full federal taxes. The District's absence from the Act makes it ineligible for federal funding that would support research at the District's public university, the University of the District of Columbia (UDC). The College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences at UDC, the nation's only urban land-grant university, offers programs that complement D.C.'s ongoing forestry efforts and serve individuals in my district and beyond. Rectifying the District's exclusion from this Act would ensure its equitable treatment and provide UDC a fair share of resources. The District should be eligible under this Act just like the states and territories. This bill would allow students and researchers in the nation's capital to benefit from this important forestry program. I urge support for this bill.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce a bill that would statutorily add the District of Columbia to the national empowerment zone program, which provides federal tax incentives for businesses to locate and invest in low-income areas. In 1993, Congress created the national empowerment zone program and left it to federal agencies to designate a certain number of low-income areas as empowerment zones. The District was not one of the areas selected. However, in 1997, working primarily with Republicans in Congress, I created federal tax incentives for investment in the District by businesses and individuals. The business incentives were similar to, but more generous than, those available under the national empowerment zone program. I got the D.C. incentives reauthorized regularly until 2011, when Congress refused to extend only the D.C. incentives. At the same time, the national empowerment zone program continued to be extended and was last extended through 2025. Under my bill, certain low-income neighborhoods, particularly in Wards 5, 7 and 8, would be treated as empowerment zones as long as the national empowerment zone program remains in effect. The wisdom of the bipartisan, modest, targeted business tax incentives for D.C. has been amply and visibly demonstrated in the economic resurgence of parts of the nation's capital where they were utilized. Among the most visible examples are the formerly rundown area around Capital One Arena, which is now surrounded by offices, restaurants and vibrant nightlife, and the Penn Quarter neighborhood, which had limited residential, commercial and retail spaces, and is now a popular mixed- use neighborhood. Unfortunately, the D.C. tax incentives were allowed to expire before the poorest D.C. neighborhoods were ready to make use of them, especially in Wards 5, 7 and 8. Withdrawing the D.C. tax incentives, particularly after they had proven to be effective, has left the nation's capital with essentially half of a revival, and was tragically timed just as the lower-income parts of the District, which need the incentives most, are ready for redevelopment. The effectiveness of these incentives for the District has been demonstrated and their costs have been de minimis compared to the measurable benefits they have generated in the District. I strongly urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the District of Columbia Courts Home Rule Act. This bill would give the Council of the District of Columbia authority over the jurisdiction and organization of the local D.C. courts. The D.C. Home Rule Act (HRA) expressly prohibits the Council from enacting any law with respect to any provision of the D.C. Code title that relates to the local D.C. courts. Congress can correct this injustice to the District's federal taxpaying residents by amending the HRA, even before the District becomes the 51st state. Forty-eight years after passage of the HRA, matters involving the local D.C. courts almost never come to Congress, so Congress knows virtually nothing about the District's local courts--and could not care less. Notwithstanding the importance of D.C. 's local courts to District residents, the D.C. Council, which is the repository of knowledge and experience for the District's criminal and civil justice systems and the body accountable to our residents, is irresponsibly left on the sidelines while Congress remains the sole entity that may correct flaws in the District's local courts. Under the HRA, the Council has no authority to ``enact any act, resolution, or rule with respect to any provision of title 11 of the District of Columbia Code (relating to organization and jurisdiction of the District of Columbia courts).'' Matters in title 11 are limited primarily to the rules of criminal and civil procedure, court administration, the branches of the courts, the rules of jury service and admission to the bar. Our bill would strike this limitation on the Council's authority. The District has never had authority over its local courts, even when it was responsible for paying for their operations. Under the National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act of 1997, the federal government assumed the costs for several state-level functions, including the courts because the federal government alone has jurisdiction over the courts. This bill would not change the courts' funding. This bill also would not change the authority of the President to nominate, or the Senate to confirm, local D.C. judges, which has been within their purview since the creation of the modem local court system in 1970. This bill is an important step to increase democratic self-government for the District. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Ms. NORTON

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I rise to congratulate Howard University Radio (WHUR) on its 50th anniversary. After the Washington Post donated WTOP to Howard University, the rebranded WHUR debuted on December 10, 1971, with the mission of ``Delivering Excellence In Broadcasting and Community Service.'' In January 2004, WHUR was the first radio station in the District of Columbia metropolitan area to convert to digital broadcasting. In September 2016, the station was named ``Urban Station of the Year'' by the National Association of Broadcasters. Today, WHUR broadcasts to nearly half a million listeners across five states and the District and is one of the few commercial radio stations in the United States that is owned and operated by an institution of higher education. I ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing WHUR for 50 years of providing culturally enriching content to the District of Columbia and the surrounding communities. I wish WHUR many more years of success.