Norton Gets Congress to Shoulder Tuition Funds for DC National Guard

For more information contact: James Jones, Communications Director
202.462.6000 x12 office / 202.557.4864 mobile / jjones@dcvote.org

May 20, 2004

Washington, DC - The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that she has gotten her bill to provide federal tuition assistance for members of the D.C. Army and Air National Guard included as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization expected to pass in the House today. The District of Columbia National Guard College Access Act will provide up to $2,500 in tuition assistance per year for members of the D.C. Army and Air National Guard. Norton said that she and Rep. Dave Hobson introduced the bill to help D.C. members of the Guard who are serving in Iraq and leaving their families with a heavy financial burden resulting from their absence at home.

Norton said, "These programs are state-financed elsewhere. However, despite my bill to give the Mayor of the District of Columbia the same authority over the Guard as states have, the President alone has D.C. National Guard authority. I have asked the federal government to at least match the federal authority with some additional benefits for our Guard." Norton said that she was particularly grateful to Armed Services Chair Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and Ranking Member Ike Skelton (D-MO) and Rep. Dave Hobson (R-OH) of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

The D.C. National Guard College Access program will pay for tuition and other expenses of Guard members who have served for at least one year and are attending an accredited undergraduate or graduate program anywhere in the country. Residents from Maryland, Virginia and other states also serve in the D.C. Guard and would be eligible for the program along with D.C. residents. These funds are in addition to Norton's D.C. College Access Act, which has sent more than 6,500 D.C. students to U.S. public colleges at low in-state tuition rates and provided tuition assistance for private colleges in the region and nationwide since it was passed in 1999. The Government Reform Committee gave unanimous approval for the permanent reauthorization of the D.C. College Access Act in April and this program is expected to become a permanent part of federal law this year.

"The D.C. College Access Act has helped to create greater equality with the states for higher education for our residents," Norton said. "The D.C. National Guard College Access Act will bring about similar equality for members of the D.C. National Guard. These hard-pressed residents have been precipitously torn from their families and jobs to serve without a vote. At the very least, they deserve every opportunity available to other members of the armed forces at a time when they face financial hardship arising from war."

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Contact: Doxie A. McCoy
202.225.8050 office
202.225.8143 cell
doxie.mccoy@mail.house.gov
www.norton.house.gov

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