Norton Condemns Lee-Mace Bill to Overturn D.C. Regulations on Education Requirements for Child Care Workers

Press Release

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released the following statement condemning a bill introduced by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-SC) that would repeal District of Columbia regulations on education requirements for staff at child development facilities. This is the second anti-D.C. bill Lee has introduced this Congress and the first bill Mace has ever introduced in Congress.

"Senator Lee and Congresswoman Mace are abusing Congress' undemocratic power over the District of Columbia to meddle in local D.C. matters. If they are concerned with occupational licensing rules, they should use their legitimate federal power to introduce legislation that applies nationwide.

"It is amazing that a member of Congress decided that her first-ever bill in Congress would address a purely local D.C. matter, instead of her own district or a nationwide issue.

"Senator Lee claims to be a strong supporter of local control over local issues, yet he blatantly and regularly violates this position on local District matters. On Tuesday on the Senate floor, Senator Lee had the audacity to say, while attempting to overturn a D.C. bill, that he was acting because senators are accountable to the people who elected them. He ignores that D.C. has its own locally elected officials, who, alone, are accountable to D.C. residents for local matters. The Lee-Mace bill shows once again the serious urgency of D.C. statehood."

Lee is a chronic abuser of Congress' undemocratic power over D.C. On Tuesday, he asked for unanimous consent (UC) on the Senate floor to pass his resolution disapproving D.C.'s Minor Consent for Vaccinations Amendment Act of 2020, which would permit minors capable of informed consent to receive a vaccine without parental consent. Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) objected to the UC request and therefore the request was denied. In prior Congresses, Lee has introduced legislation to interfere with all of D.C.'s occupational licensing laws and create a new D.C. Council committee on occupational licensing; to ban abortions after 20 weeks in the District; and to allow discrimination against D.C.'s LGBTQ residents. Norton defeated all of these bills.

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