Eleanor Holmes NortonVerified account

+ We have added 7 Senate cosponsors in the last month to our #DCStatehood bill. Over 90% of Senate Democrats are now cosponsors, a record. #MakingHistory

Delighted that both Rhode Island senators, @SenJackReed and @SenWhitehouse, are now cosponsoring the #DCStatehood bill. Last week’s historic House passage of the bill has added to the momentum in the Senate.

Thank you, @ChrisVanHollen & @SenatorCarper, for filing an amendment to the NDAA to give the DC Mayor control over our own National Guard, just as governors have over their Guards. After Trump deployed forces on DC streets, this self-government issue is more important than ever.

The mission during the remainder of this Congress is clear. We need to educate the American public about #DCStatehood, and we need to build support for the D.C. statehood bill in the Senate. Today’s @SenateDems hearing is a great start.

The Senate can continue to exercise undemocratic authority over the citizens who reside in our nation’s capital, treating them, in the words of #FrederickDouglass, as “aliens, not citizens, but subjects.” Or it can live up to our nation’s promise and ideals and pass #DCStatehood.

#DCStatehood is deeply personal for me. My great-grandfather Richard Holmes, who escaped as a slave from a Virginia plantation, made it to D.C., a walk to freedom but not to equality. For three generations my family has been denied the rights other Americans take for granted.

The United States is the only democratic country that denies both voting rights in the national legislature and local autonomy to the residents of its nation’s capital. The Senate has both the constitutional authority and moral obligation to end this injustice. #DCStatehood

In a few days, Americans will celebrate Independence Day. However, the nation’s oldest slogan, “no taxation without representation,” and the principle of consent of the governed still do not apply to the Americans living in the nation’s capital. #DCStatehood

Thank you, @SenatorCarper, the Senate sponsor of and longtime partner on #DCStatehood for his extraordinary work. He has achieved a record 40 cosponsors of the bill, including the Democratic leadership, and he is adding Senators at an impressive pace.

Senate Republicans so fear the overwhelming vote we got for #DCStatehood, some of it from House members in red states, that they're having a press conference to detail their longtime opposition to #HR51 in advance of my testimony in the Senate today.

I sent an open letter to the DC LGBTQ community celebrating #PrideMonth and progress following the Supreme Court decision prohibiting employers from discriminating against LGBTQ individuals. On now to the Equality Act, which prohibits all discrimination against LGBTQ individuals.