[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9170]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               STOP THE MEDDLING IN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

  (Ms. NORTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, Representative Phil Gingrey of Georgia filed 
a National Defense Authorization bill amendment that was included in en 
bloc amendments expressing the sense of the Congress that Active Duty 
military personnel in their private capacity should be exempt from the 
gun laws of the District of Columbia, but not those of any other State 
or locality. This antidemocratic amendment continues a pattern of 
Republican assault on D.C.'s local rights and gun safety laws. But we 
have shown we know how to fight back. We defeated the Gingrey amendment 
last Congress, and we will work with our Senate allies to defeat it 
again.
  Today, after Newtown, when there have been serious attempts to 
toughen gun laws across the country and even here in the Congress, the 
Gingrey amendment goes in the opposite direction and attempts to use 
Active Duty personnel to further his own gun agenda.
  Rather than addressing the needs of his own Georgia constituents, 
Phil Gingrey is spending his time meddling in a district more than 600 
miles away from his. If there were a problem involving guns and our 
Active Duty military, he would not target only the District of 
Columbia.
  The District will not be used to further the agenda of Members of 
Congress unaccountable to our residents. We particularly resent being 
used as fodder by a Member in his campaign for the Senate.

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