Norton Announces Critical Step to Judiciary Committee - July 25, 2006

Norton Announces Critical Step to Judiciary Committee
Mark-Up of D.C. Voting Rights Bill
July 25, 2006

Washington, DC--Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that her efforts to get the first full House vote for the District of Columbia took a major step forward with an announcement that the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution will hold a hearing on the District of Columbia Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act on Thursday, September, 14, 2006. "We are really on our way now," Norton said, "with the prerequisite hearing to the Judiciary Committee mark-up. The possibility that we can get to the floor now is real."

The Committee on Government Reform passed the bill, sponsored by Norton and Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA), 29 to 4 on May 18, 2006 with almost as many Republican as Democratic votes. The Congresswoman negotiated the final bill with Davis over a period of four years to reach the agreement that brought the bill forward. This latest step forward in the Constitution Subcommittee is the next step typically used by the Judiciary Committee on matters that deal with voting to ensure that all of the issues are on the record before mark-up. Both Government Reform and Judiciary Committee mark-ups are necessary to get the bill to the floor, but the Judiciary Committee is the committee of primary jurisdiction, and a mark-up there was a central element in Norton's negotiations that led to the bill.