Norton Says Hard Work Yields Confidence for Historic D.C. Vote Markups (3/12/07)

March 12 2007

        Washington, DC-The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that Norton believes the scheduling of a double markup of the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007 this week is an indication of confidence that the bill will pass. The first markup will take place in the Oversight and Government Reform Committee Tuesday, March 13, at 10 AM in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building.  Norton and Ranking Member Tom Davis (R-VA), authors of the bill, are confident they have the votes in their committee and in the Judiciary Committee, which will hold a hearing on the bill Wednesday and then a markup on Thursday (details below).  The markups should put the bill on track to go to the floor by the end of the month, before Congress goes on recess on April 2nd, as promised by the Democratic leadership.

        Norton said, "This week's markups in two committees for full House representation for District of Columbia citizens signal a milestone as historic for the House itself as it is for our residents.  The 110th Congress will be remembered for having fulfilled the framer's most basic promise when they gave Congress awesome power over the citizens of the nation's capital.  The much-rehearsed issues against D.C. voting rights are especially stale today, as residents continue to fight and die for our country in Iraq and Afghanistan, as they have in every war, and to pay the same federal income taxes as other citizens.  Two committees have spent much of the 109th and 110th sessions of Congress doing their homework on the constitutional issues and have worked with both Republicans and Democrats to settle all the other outstanding issues.  There may be questions for other branches, but there is only one question for Members of this Congress: Can Members seriously tell the world in 2007, as our country is engaged in a war waged in the name of democracy and freedom, that citizens from their own capital, serving alongside their own constituents should be denied representation in our House?  I am grateful to my good friend, Tom Davis, who acted first to show that the right to representation is above partisanship, and to the state of Utah, the crucial partner for eliminating partisan concerns.  I can only ask my colleagues in the House to follow Utah's lead and do the same."

D.C. House Vote Bill Markup in Oversight & Government Reform Committee: 
Tuesday, March 13, 10 AM, Room 2154 Rayburn House Office Building, Independence Ave. and South Capitol Street, SW

Hearing in Judiciary Committee: 
Wednesday, March 14, 10 AM, Room 2141 Rayburn
Witnesses: Professor Viet Dinh, Georgetown University Law Center;  Attorney Richard P. Bress, Latham and Watkins; Attorney Bruce Spiva, Partner, Spiva & Hartnett LLP; Professor Jonathan Turley, George Washington University Law School

Markup in Judiciary Committee: 
Thursday,  March 15, Room 2141 Rayburn

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