{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://norton.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/norton-blasts-meadows-for-introducing-bill-to-radically-alter-dc-s-0", "Norton Blasts Meadows for Introducing Bill to Radically Alter D.C.s Local Education System", "2017-12-07", "2017", "2017-12", "Democrat", "House", "DC", "Eleanor Norton", "N000147", "norton.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today blasted Representative Mark Meadows (R-NC), the chair of the House subcommittee with jurisdiction over the District of Columbia and the leader of the far-right Freedom Caucus, for reintroducing a bill that would radically alter D.C.\u2019s local education system by forcing D.C. to steer its local funds away from D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) and public charter schools to vouchers for any student who chooses to attend private schools.\u00a0 Norton said Meadows seems to be taking marching orders from Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who introduced the same bill last week.\u00a0 This far-right bill is far worse and intrusive than the existing D.C. private school voucher program, which uses federal funds.\u00a0 The bill would also force D.C. to use its local funds to pay for other educational expenses such as private online classes.\u00a0 Last Congress, the Republican-controlled House and Senate roundly rejected all amendments to establish national voucher programs as part of the bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.\n\u201cMy friend Representative Meadows apparently does not have enough going on with a looming government shutdown that he decided to go back to one of his favorite pastimes\u2014abusing congressional authority to attack D.C. home rule and our local laws,\u201d Norton said.\u00a0 \u201cRepresentative Meadows, the chair on the most conservative caucus in the Congress, should reread some of his past statements on local control over local affairs and his calls to respect the choices of local jurisdictions.\u00a0 If Representative Meadows truly believes private vouchers are the best policy, he should introduce a bill to create a national voucher program, well within the appropriate purview of Congress.\u00a0 Instead, he picks on the District\u2019s educational system, which already boasts robust school choice with our public charter schools, which nearly half of our public school students attend.\u00a0 We will defeat this radical bill, as we did last Congress.\u201d\nMeadows is a frequent offender of D.C. home rule.\u00a0 He has led the effort in the House to repeal the referendum passed overwhelmingly by D.C. voters in 2013 that granted the District budget autonomy.\u00a0 Last Congress, he introduced a standalone bill, which passed the House, to repeal the budget autonomy referendum, the text of which has been included in the fiscal years 2017 and 2018 House-passed D.C. appropriations bills.\u00a0 However, Norton has kept the referendum from being overturned.\u00a0 Last Congress, Meadows introduced a bill to interfere with and alter D.C.\u2019s local occupational licensing laws and require the District to create a new legislative committee or subcommittee on occupational regulations, which Norton kept from moving forward.\u00a0 Last Congress, Meadows was one of the most vocal supporters of a House-passed disapproval resolution to nullify a local D.C. anti-discrimination law, the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act, which Norton kept from becoming law.\u00a0 In the 113th Congress, he introduced a bill to redefine the District government as a federal agency and prohibit it from deducting union dues from employee paychecks.\u00a0 Norton said that her success in keeping anti-home-rule bills from being enacted seems to not deter Meadows and other anti-democratic Members of Congress from introducing such bills.\u00a0 \u201cSome Members simply seek to burnish their right-wing credentials at the expense of the District of Columbia,\u201d Norton said.\n###", 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/press-releases/norton-blasts-meadows-for-introducing-bill-to-radically-alter-dc-s-0"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.620979979634285, "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"}