Norton & Williams to Discuss Witness Line-up for D.C. House Vote Hearing - September 12, 2006

Norton & Williams to Discuss Witness Line-up for
D.C. House Vote Hearing at Mayor Williams’ Wednesday Briefing
September 12, 2006

Washington, DC—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will discuss Thursday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on the new D.C. House vote bill (H.R. 5388, the District of Columbia Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act), at Mayor Anthony Williams’ weekly press briefing tomorrow, Wednesday, September 13, 2006, at 11 AM in theGround Floor Press Briefing Roomof the John A. Wilson Building (1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW). The Judiciary Committee hearing on the House vote bill will take place on Thursday at 2 PM before the Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution in Room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building (Independence Avenue & South Capitol Street, SW), and residents are urged to attend.

Norton and Williams will discuss the hearing witnesses for the Minority: Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. (R), and Adam H. Charnes, co-author of an official, legal opinion in support of congressional authority to pass legislation giving D.C. a vote in the House. The Majority witnesses are John Fortier, a research fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, and Jonathan Turley of George Washington University Law School. Norton said that she is pleased that the witnesses for Thursday’s hearing were not chosen in the standard way in the Judiciary Committee, where the Minority is allowed only one witness. She expressed her appreciation that Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) consulted with her, Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA) and Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI), permitting negotiations to take place that resulted in the final witnesses. At the Mayor’s press briefing, the Congresswoman will explain the process and offer information about why she and Mayor Williams, with whom she consulted, believe that the witnesses in support of the House vote bill will make a particularly persuasive case to the Subcommittee.

Norton said that Thursday’s hearing is an important prerequisite to a Judiciary Committee mark-up that she and Chairman Davis are working for as the next step. The Government Reform Committee passed the bill, sponsored by Norton and Chairman Davis, by a 29 to 4 vote on May 18, 2006. However, the Judiciary Committee is the committee of primary jurisdiction. A Judiciary Committee mark-up was a central element in Norton’s negotiations that led to the bill that she and Chairman Davis agreed upon in March, after four years of groundwork and negotiations. The Constitution Subcommittee typically holds hearings on matters concerning voting to ensure that all of the issues are aired and on the record before a mark-up is considered.