{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://norton.house.gov/media/press-releases/norton-releases-remarks-no-troops-our-streets-press-conference", "Norton Releases Remarks from \u201cNo Troops on Our Streets\u201d Press Conference", "2025-09-03", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "House", "DC", "Eleanor Holmes Norton", "N000147", "norton.house.gov", "norton", "https://norton.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "(WASHINGTON, DC) \u2013 Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) released her remarks from today\u2019s \u201cNo Troops on Our Streets\u201d press conference on President Trump\u2019s federal surge in D.C., unlawful attempted federalization of D.C.\u2019s Metropolitan Police Department and his authoritarian ambitions for other American cities.\n\nNorton\u2019s remarks follow, as prepared for delivery.\n\nRemarks of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton\n\n\u201cNo Troops on Our Streets\u201d Press Conference\n\nSeptember 3, 2025\n\nThree weeks ago, despite historically low crime and for purposes opposed by eight out of ten D.C. residents, President Trump declared a \u201ccrime emergency\u201d in D.C. as a pretext for federalizing D.C.\u2019s locally funded police department. He deployed more than 2,000 National Guard troops, put guns in their hands, and sent masked ICE officers to forcibly take community members from our streets. President Trump has used D.C. residents as props in a political play to showcase his own power.\n\nWhile the president claims that federal control of D.C. is necessary to combat crime, his own actions severely jeopardize public safety in the District. Earlier this year, the president and Republicans in Congress intentionally limited D.C.\u2019s ability to spend its own local funds, forcing D.C. to cut roughly one billion dollars halfway through its fiscal year from its own budget, which could have further funded D.C. police, fire and emergency response services, and other public safety efforts. He pardoned nearly 1,600 individuals who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, including hundreds convicted of assaulting police officers. He fired and demoted dozens of D.C.'s most experienced career prosecutors, contributing to a larger backlog of criminal cases in court and denying victims of crime timely access to justice. No emergency exists in D.C. that the president did not create himself.\n\nAs D.C.\u2019s sole member of Congress, I have led the federal legislative response to President Trump\u2019s unlawful, unwarranted, and unprecedented actions. I introduced a termination resolution to end the federalization of MPD with Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, a longstanding ally of the District who is here with us today. I introduced a bill to require National Guard troops deployed in D.C. to address crime to wear body cameras, which would provide much-needed transparency and accountability. Yesterday I introduced two bills to give D.C. full control over its own National Guard and police, and last week I wrote the Department of Defense and National Guard Bureau demanding answers about the scope, legal parameters, mission and cost of the National Guard deployment.\n\nMore than 700,000 people count ourselves as D.C. residents. We are Americans, worthy and capable of the same autonomy granted to residents of the states. Our local police force should not be subject to federalization, an action that wouldn't be possible for any other police department in the country. The only permanent remedy that would give D.C. the same rights and protections enjoyed by other American jurisdictions is making my D.C. statehood bill law. To be content with less than statehood is to concede the equality of citizenship that is the birthright of D.C. residents as American citizens.\n\nAlthough D.C.\u2019s lack of statehood makes it more vulnerable to the president\u2019s abuses of power, he has frequently made it known that his authoritarian ambitions do not end with D.C.\n\nThank you to Congresswoman Ramirez for inviting me to speak today. Your constituents in Chicago are also Americans who are worthy of governing their own local affairs, and I\u2019m proud to be here with you today defending Chicago\u2019s right to the same protections I\u2019ve argued D.C. deserves for decades.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T15:07:37Z"]], "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/press-releases/norton-releases-remarks-no-troops-our-streets-press-conference"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.018043141812086, "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"}