Norton Racial Profiling Amendment Passed on House Floor Today After Ferguson and Baltimore

Press Release

The office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that the U.S. House of Representatives today passed by voice vote her amendment to prohibit states that receive federal transportation funding from engaging in unconstitutional profiling based on physical characteristics, such as race. This morning, Norton offered the amendment to the fiscal year 2016 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations (THUD) bill to prevent profiling by law enforcement officials, ensuring citizens are not stopped, investigated, arrested, or detained on federally funded highways, streets, or bridges based on their appearance. A vote on final passage of the bill is scheduled for next week. Norton got the same amendment added to the House fiscal year 2015 THUD appropriations bill by voice vote, and it was included in the fiscal year 2015 omnibus appropriations bill.

"Although I got this historic amendment added and passed last year, its attachment to an annual appropriations bill meant I needed to offer it again," Norton said. "Getting this amendment in the THUD bill serves an essential purpose until we can get a permanent authorized version. We see in Baltimore and Ferguson the results of the disproportionate stops of African Americans in the streets by law enforcement officials because of their color. In my remarks on the House floor, I submitted documentation from federal studies of the violation of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which left Congress with little alternative but to pass my amendment."

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