Norton Bill Requiring Federal Facilities to Provide Lactation Spaces to Nursing Mothers Signed into Law

Press Release

The office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that President Trump yesterday signed into law Norton's Fairness for Breastfeeding Mothers Act, which requires buildings that are either federally owned or leased to provide designated private, hygienic lactation spaces for nursing mothers visiting such buildings. Federal law currently requires employers to provide a designated, non-bathroom space for employees to pump breastmilk for their newborns, but Norton's new law extends this requirement to visitors and guests in federal facilities across the nation.

"The benefits of breastfeeding are so well-documented that federal agencies' own literature has long encouraged breastfeeding," Norton said. "Millions of Americans visit federal sites across the country, not only here in the nation's capital, making it essential that Congress ensure nursing mothers have access to designated private, hygienic lactation spaces. I am grateful to my House and Senate colleagues for their strong support of my bill, especially Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), the Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, who helped get this bill through the Senate."

Norton's breastfeeding bill is her second bill signed into law just this year. Norton was ranked the most effective House Democrat in the last Congress based on her "proven ability to advance a member's agenda items through the legislative process and into law." The Center for Effective Lawmaking said Norton's ranking is "noteworthy because she is a nonvoting member."

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