D.C. House Vote Bill Clears First Committee with Strong 24-5 Vote (3/13/07)

Washington, DC--At the first of almost simultaneousmarkups by two committees, today the District prevailed with a decisive vote of24-5 by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for passage of the Districtof Columbia House Voting Rights Act. In her opening statement,Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) told the committee that the case forD.C. voting rights was closed when Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, James McHenryof Maryland and the other signers of the Constitution accepted the land for thenation's capital occupied by residents who already had voting rights in theCongress. "The framers," she said, "would never haveasked... and Virginia and Maryland would never have betrayed their owncitizens by agreeing to relinquish the basic right of representation for whichthe Revolutionary War was waged." Norton said that Congress itselfhas since reinforced the framers' understanding by compelling the District tomeet the same obligations as the states, citing the District's obligation topay federal income taxes, but she said, "the case is closed at thefunerals of District residents who died fighting for the vote for the citizensof Iraq and Afghanistan, as Washingtonians have in every war, including the warfor 'the Republic for which we stand.'"

Republicans offered severalamendments today. Norton accepted an amendment that granted the Districtfull voting rights but attempted to rule out D.C. representation in the Senate,an amendment, she said, that was a trap not worth a debate, offered to detractfrom the bill. The amendment was an invalid attempt to bind a futureSenate and therefore would be removed before the bill got to the House floorand was not worth a drawn-out debate, Norton said. "I have beencrystal clear that residents will not give up until they get their fullcitizenship rights and that stands now and until the last right has beengranted."

The Judiciary Committee will holda hearing on the bill tomorrow (Wednesday) and a markup Thursday, both at 10 AMin Room 2141 RayburnHouse OfficeBuilding. The billis expected to go to the House floor by the end of this month, before the April2^nd congressional recess.

The full text of Norton'sopening statement follows.

If we had a dollar for everyword and action D.C. residents have spoken and done since they first petitionedCongress for a vote 206 years ago, I believe we could eliminate thedeficit. I am grateful for all those words and actions, but especially tothe people who have been most directly responsible for the bill. Whentime is rationed, therefore, it is best used to thank those who have made theoccasion possible. The idea was hatched, not by me or any D.C. resident,but by an outlander, my regional colleague who has been one of my best friendsin the Congress. Even if I had been in the majority, I could not havefashioned a bill with Utahas a partner. Moved by his personal sense of right and wrong, RankingMember Tom Davis used his insider political knowledge, his stature as a leaderof his party, and his chairmanship to start us down the bipartisan path whichmust be traveled to expand representation in Congress. Henry Waxman,first as ranking member and now as chair, has been my advisor, confidant,problem spotter and problem solver, whose principled effort for equal rightsfor D.C. residents began long before I was elected to Congress.

Thousands of Americans and others around the world, in the more than fouryears we have sought this bill, have contributed ideas, time and effort: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who added to her long and unequivocal push for fullrights for District citizens, her personal attention and intervention when itcounted most to move this bill forward; Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who hasbeen as devoted and outspoken for this bill as if D.C. residents were his ownconstituents; Utah Governor Huntsman and the Utah delegation, RepresentativesBishop, Canon, and Matheson who forged a unique partnership on their understandingthat Utah and D.C. citizens felt the same sense of loss, were after the sameprecious right, and could get here together; Judiciary Committee Chairman JohnConyers, who has carried high his own personal banner for the rights for D.C.residents to match their burdens since being elected in 1964; the local andnational civil rights organizations that formed themselves into a formidableD.C. voting rights coalition, led by D.C. Vote, which gave the effortstructure, organizational know-how and boundless dedication; the officialinternational human rights entities abroad that have gone on record to ask theUnited States to come into conformance with international law by grantingvoting rights to the citizens of its capital; my own colleagues of both partiesand especially my Republican colleagues who have joined this effort for D.C.and for Utah out of principle; and of course the residents of this city, livingand dead, who have fought for equal citizenship over the ages.

If ever a case has been made, thecase for representation of every citizen, excluding none, in every nation'slegislature, has been made here and around the world. For many Americans,it is made when they understand that the No Taxation Without Representationslogan of our own American Revolution of 1776 has yet to mean the citizens ofthe nation's capital. For others, the case is closed at the funerals ofDistrict residents who died fighting for the vote for the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan, as Washingtonians havein every war, including the war for the "Republic for which westand." For my colleagues, the case is surely made after a readingof the historical record left by the framers. Thomas Jefferson ofVirginia, James McHenry of Maryland and all of the rest did not ask and wouldnever have asked Virginia and Maryland to contribute land then occupied bytheir own citizens for the new capital of freedom in the world if they believedthat these citizens would lose the rights they possessed then to be representedin Congress - and Virginia and Maryland would never have betrayed their owncitizens by agreeing to relinquish the basic right of representation for whichthe Revolutionary War was waged. Once the nation's capital wasestablished, the framers believed that Congress would follow through on thepromise of our Revolution. Now, 110 congresses later, may their will bedone.