Norton in Strategy Meeting to Stress Civil Rights and Racial Roots of D.C. Status (7/27/07)
Norton in Strategy Meeting with Hatch, Lieberman and Davis
to Stress Civil Rights and Racial Roots of D.C. Status
July 27, 2007
Washington DC-Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today attended a critical strategy meeting that enhanced prospects for Senate passage of the D.C.-Utah voting rights bill with the bill's lead sponsors, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), in Hatch's office. All four agreed that critical to passage is enhancing recognition that the "D.C.-Utah bill is the civil rights act of 2007 and that a civil rights bill must never be filibustered in this country again." The four agreed on strategies that could get floor time for the bill next week, if a gap develops, and for use of the August break to assure passage if floor time before recess proves impossible before recess. Norton described the meeting as "truly exciting in its content and in the sheer determination shown by the lead sponsors." Hatch, who enjoys considerable respect and influence among his Republican colleagues, has taken important leadership in heading off a filibuster and getting Republican votes. Lieberman, who has championed S.1257 as an independent Democrat, is the main liaison to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and is especially valuable for his ability to work with both sides in the Senate. Continuing his lead role on the bill since its inception almost five years ago, Davis has been meeting with Senators and is using "the special radar and contacts that he cultivated when he chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee," Norton said. All along, Hatch and Lieberman have been caucusing among themselves and having conversations with other senators, with the result that the bill appears close to beating any attempted filibuster.
"D.C. residents need to know that they have truly committed friends in the three colleagues I met with this morning," Norton said. "Senators Hatch and Lieberman want their Senate colleagues to face the civil rights and racial roots of the city's status that trace to the 19th century and were not eliminated until a delegate was authorized in the Home Rule Act of 1974 about 30 years ago." She said that the Senate and House maintained D.C. as a segregated city until the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision and that the Senate sponsors want to make sure their colleagues understand the implications of a filibuster in the context of the role they have always played in the city's status and subsequent changes.