Issue Position: Norton's Role as Subcommittee Chair Benefitted the City

Issue Position

As subcommittee chair, Norton held 35 hearings, 13 more than the next highest subcommittee. Norton's subcommittee, which is unusually broad, with jurisdiction over the General Services Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Economic Development Administration and the Federal Protective Service. Norton held hearings of great importance to the District, the region and the nation, including four hearings to track stimulus funds under her jurisdiction, a hearing on the snowstorms that paralyzed the region and on reimbursement for local governments, hearings on elimination of wasteful government spending and managing the federal government's large real estate portfolio, and hearings on FEMA's progress after Hurricane Katrina.

An example of a Norton subcommittee action that benefitted the city and U.S. taxpayers alike was her revision of a Department of Defense (DOD) requirement that ruled out large sections of the city and region for office space to house civilian employees. Based on testimony at her subcommittee hearing, Norton issued a new policy eliminating a DOD requirement that its back-office non-security employees doing the same administrative work as other federal civilian employees be housed in secure office space, at significantly greater cost to taxpayers. Norton could find no justification when, for example, front-line Department of Justice employees and U.S. Attorneys engaged in work related to terrorism, drug cartels, and other organized crime are housed in office space, with the usual security.

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