[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 141 (Wednesday, October 8, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2013]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION TO GIVE DC CITIZENS A PLACE IN STATUARY 
                                  HALL

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, October 8, 2003

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that Government Reform 
Committee Chair Tom Davis (R-VA) introduced a bill with me today to 
permit two statues honoring citizens of the District of Columbia in 
Statuary Hall of the Capitol, just as statues honoring citizens of 
states are placed in the historic hall. This legislation would allow 
the city to offer two statues to the Congress on behalf of D.C. 
residents.
  The District of Columbia was born with the nation itself. The city 
has more than two centuries of its very own rich and uniquely American 
history. It goes without saying that the almost 600,000 American 
citizens who live in the nation's capital deserve the honor of having 
two of its history makers represented in the halls of the nation's 
Capitol just as citizens who live in the 50 states have long enjoyed.
  Our bill would allow the Mayor and the City Council to devise the 
method for determining the identity of the honorees, who must be 
deceased. Mayor Anthony Williams has already agreed to find funds in 
the District's budget for these statues upon the passage of this 
legislation.
  Every time we allow the District to be excluded from its place among 
the 50 states, we undermine our own fight for congressional voting 
rights and full democracy. It is for this reason that I insisted on a 
D.C. coin when quarters were authorized for the states and a D.C. 
travel and tourism stamp. I got the Postal Service to issue the first 
hometown D.C. stamp depicting D.C. neighborhoods, as well as 
traditional monuments, last month. My coin bill has been introduced and 
is expected to be approved soon on the suspension calendar.
  While D.C. residents have not yet obtained the same full political 
equality and voting rights as the states, they have all the 
responsibilities of the states, including paying all federal taxes and 
serving in all wars. Today when we are losing residents in Iraq, the 
least we should do is to give this city its rightful and equal place in 
the Capitol. Recently the District lost 44-year old Lt. Col. Paul W. 
Kimbrough, an African-American engineer who was supporting Operation 
Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. A month ago I attended the funeral of 
21-year old Specialist Darryl Dent of the D.C. National Guard who was 
killed in Iraq. There are more than 100 soldiers still serving in Iraq 
from Specialist Dent's 547th Transportation Company.

                          ____________________