{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://norton.house.gov//media-center/press-releases/norton-says-final-defense-authorization-act-bill-contains-legislative", "Norton Says Final Defense Authorization Act Bill Contains Legislative Wins for D.C.", "2014-12-03", "2014", "2014-12", "Democrat", "House", "DC", "Eleanor Norton", "N000147", "norton.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that she was pleased that the final fiscal year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), released yesterday, contains two wins for the District of Columbia:\u00a0 a provision that re-designates Pershing Park as the World War I Memorial, laying to rest any possible nationalization of D.C.\u2019s War Memorial, and, for the third-straight year, does not contain Representative Phil Gingrey\u2019s (R-GA) anti-home-rule gun amendment.\u00a0 The Gingrey amendment was passed as an amendment to the House\u2019s version of the bill earlier this year, expressing the sense of Congress that active duty military personnel in their private capacity should be exempt from the gun safety laws of the District of Columbia, but not elsewhere.\u00a0 Norton has fought the sense of Congress provision, even though it does not have the force of law, because it was a foot in the door, putting Congress on record in favor of weakening D.C.\u2019s gun laws.\u00a0 This Congress, Rep. Gingrey introduced his amendment as a stand-alone bill as well, but it was not passed by the House.\u00a0 Rep. Gingrey lost his bid for the Senate and will be leaving Congress this year.\u00a0\n\u201cEspecially when it comes to public safety, Congress needs to get off of D.C.\u2019s back,\u201d Norton said.\u00a0 \u201cWhether it is Rep. Gingrey\u2019s \u2018message provision\u2019 on guns or the more serious Rep. Massie amendment to wipe out several of D.C.\u2019s gun laws, we can\u2019t allow Congress to ruin public safety and put our people in harm\u2019s way.\u00a0 Also, I appreciate that our friends in the Republican House and the Democratic Senate have agreed to the re-designation of Pershing Park as the World War I Memorial.\u00a0 Veterans of \u2018the Great War\u2019 deserve and will have a war memorial of their own in the nation\u2019s capital without piggy-backing on D.C.\u2019s WWI commemoration on the Mall.\u00a0 The D.C. War Memorial has come to symbolize all of this city\u2019s veterans, who went to war and came home without a vote and full equality in the union.\u201d\nNorton is an original cosponsor of the Pershing Park re-designation bill, which was introduced by Congressmen Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO) and Ted Poe (R-TX), which would re-designate Pershing Park, a federal park in the District of Columbia, as the \u201cNational World War I Memorial\u201d and preserve the D.C. War Memorial for D.C. veterans only. \u00a0Norton fought attempts to nationalize the D.C. War Memorial as the national World War I memorial, while also working to create a national World War I memorial in the District.\u00a0\u00a0 Norton and her colleagues previously agreed that the D.C. War Memorial would remain dedicated exclusively to D.C. veterans, and that they would continue to work together to pursue a number of other options for a national World War I memorial in the District, and to re-designate the Liberty Memorial of Kansas City, Missouri as the \u201cNational World War I Museum and Memorial.\u201d\u00a0 The NDAA accomplishes those goals.", 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": ["http://norton.house.gov//media-center/press-releases/norton-says-final-defense-authorization-act-bill-contains-legislative"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.416713163256645, "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"}