[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 56 (Friday, April 15, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E753]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         RECOGNIZING THE DC 41

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 15, 2011

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of 
Representatives to join me in recognizing the 41 District of Columbia 
elected officials and residents who stood up for the self-governing 
rights of the American citizens who reside in the nation's capital by 
sitting down in a peaceful act of civil disobedience on Constitution 
Avenue in front of the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Monday, April 
15, 2011. The rally, organized by DC Vote, protested the final 2011 
continuing resolution (CR) which contains two anti-home-rule riders. 
The CR prohibits the District from spending its local taxpayer-raised 
funds on abortions for low-income women, even though many state and 
local jurisdictions have done so for decades. Without consultation with 
any District of Columbia elected official, the CR also mandates a D.C.-
only private school voucher program, while the House Republican 
majority refuses to bring a bill to the floor that would allow 
districts that desire this alternative to select it on a home-rule 
basis. The District of Columbia is almost alone in the nation in 
establishing a robust alternative to our local public schools, our 
public charter schools, which educate almost 40 percent of the city's 
children and have long waiting lists. The House voted to approve these 
riders while denying voting representation in this body to District of 
Columbia residents.
  The D.C. elected officials who engaged in civil disobedience were 
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, Council Chair Kwame Brown, At-Large Council 
members Sekou Biddle and Michael Brown, Council members Yvette 
Alexander, Muriel Bowser, and Thomas Wells, and House Shadow 
Representative Michael Panetta. The District residents were Ann 
Aldrich, Lafayette Barnes, Peter Bishop, Robert Brannum, Jason Cross, 
Billie Day, Jack Evans, Marc Ferrara, Corryn Freeman, Mary Gosselink, 
Lawrence Hams, Karen Hixson, Anise Jenkins, Eugene Kinlow, John 
Klenert, Rachel Madelham, Adam Maier, George Marion, Jr., Nicholas 
McCoy, Martin Moulton, Brian Pate, Joseph Perta, Jeffrey Richardson, 
Deangelo Scott, Deborah Shore, Carly Skidmore, Daniel Solomon, Bruce 
Spiva, Jay Tamboli, Maceo Thomas, Ryan Velasco, Patricia Vrandenburg, 
and Ilir Zherka.
  The city has long advocated its rights through the usual channels and 
official responses. However, from the day the 112th Congress convened, 
the House Republican majority has repeatedly introduced bills to 
violate the rights of our citizens, beginning with the approval of new 
rules that summarily stripped the District of the only vote on the 
House floor it has achieved, the House Committee of the Whole vote, 
approved by the federal courts.
  The DC 41, as they are called, recognized that the House Republican 
majority intends to return with more anti-home-rule riders. An 
additional anti-home-rule rider was included in the original Republican 
spending bill, H.R. 1, but failed this time to become a part of the 
final agreement. The message of the DC 41 was that DC elected officials 
and residents will not walk away from the infringement of their rights 
to govern themselves and to spend their taxpayer-raised local funds as 
they choose.
  I ask the House to join me in saluting the DC 41, who acted in the 
long American tradition of incurring arrests during peaceful civil 
disobedience to protect and to further their right to full equality 
with the residents of the 50 states.

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