{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://norton.house.gov/media-center/blog-posts/early-signs-on-dc-in-the-115th-congress-with-trump-as-president", "Early Signs on D.C. in the 115th Congress with Trump as President", "2017-02-07", "2017", "2017-02", "Democrat", "House", "DC", "Eleanor Norton", "N000147", "norton.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "By Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton\n\nPresident Trump\u2019s first two weeks were not about the District of Columbia, but his chaotic beginning coincided with my amendment to remove language from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee\u2019s (OGR) Authorization and Oversight Plan for the 115th Congress that appeared to signal an intention to get into D.C.\u2019s local government operations well beyond the usual disagreements with D.C. laws. As a member of the minority party, I knew my amendment could not pass, but it accomplished its purposes. Notwithstanding broader language than usual in the plan, the actual committee discussion revealed no particular issues or intention to take on D.C.\u2019s finances and operations, and OGR Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Mark Meadows and I agreed to go to lunch. The surprise was hearing OGR Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) say he favors D.C.\u2019s retrocession to Maryland to enable the city to get full rights. No one ever asks what Maryland thinks of this old canard (though the Republicans who favor it are often sincere), but D.C.\u2019s 2016 statehood referendum showed that 85% of D.C. voters want D.C. to become the 51st state.\n\nThe usual anti-home-rule bills were introduced as Congress began\u2014the permanent ban of local D.C. funds for abortion and the elimination of the District\u2019s gun safety laws. Many saw these bills, which have become tradition each Congress, as menacing, although we have been able to keep them from being enacted into law for years. What heightens concern is the presence of the new president. Yet, even President Obama was not in these fights because we were able to keep such bills from getting to his desk. Of course, this is a different administration and a different Congress\u2014but Republicans controlled the House and Senate last Congress, and these dangerous anti-home-rule bills did not get enacted.\n\nStill, the responses of residents to the OGR plan that seemed to intrude into D.C. home rule was gratifying. Residents called Chairman Chaffetz\u2019s office so often that he had to change his answering message. Residents tweeted and went on social media to oppose congressional meddling with D.C.\u2019s local affairs. Some residents even came to the House to visit the Chairman\u2019s office.\n\nIt is still too early to forecast whether D.C. will face the same barrage of radical proposals that we have seen for the nation from day one of the new administration. For now, the administration is preoccupied with travel bans, cabinet votes, and border walls, and D.C. is not on its radar.\n\nAction against the District usually begins and ends in the Congress. That is the way it was last Congress when there were eight attempts to eliminate the District\u2019s gun safety laws, eight attempts to repeal or block D.C. anti-discrimination laws, two attempts to repeal D.C. budget autonomy, and eight other attacks on D.C.\u2019s local laws. None of those attacks became law. However, the early response of D.C. residents to a plan by a congressional committee to intrude into D.C.\u2019s home rule showed that residents are ready to fight\u2014and fighting can make the difference.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://norton.house.gov/media-center/blog-posts/early-signs-on-dc-in-the-115th-congress-with-trump-as-president"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.029428094625473, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}