Senate Passage of DC Voting Rights Bill Likely This Week, House Vote Expected New Week (2/25/09)
Senate Passage of D.C. Voting Rights Bill Likely This Week, House Vote Expected Next Week as Republicans in Both Houses Seek Crippling Amendments
February 25, 2009
Washington, D.C. - The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced tonight that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) filed a motion to end debate on the D.C. House Voting Rights Act in the Senate, and that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) will bring the bill to the House Floor as early as Wednesday of next week. Reid's motion to end debate in the Senate will likely lead to a final vote tomorrow or Friday in that chamber, after at least some of the amendments that have been filed, including gun amendments, are voted on. Hoyer's announcement that he would move the bill quickly to the House Floor came today at a press conference he held during a long mark-up session in the House Judiciary Committee. Norton also attended Hoyer's press conference. The mark-up session ended with a 20-12 vote to move the bill to the House Floor. Norton released the following statement:
"This bill is moving with lightning speed in both houses, but so far the Senate is ahead. I applaud Majority Leader Reid's cloture motion to stop the dallying and get to the point - the Senate vote this week. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's announcement of a vote on our bill on the House Floor is emblematic of the extraordinary priority and advocacy he has always given to D.C. voting rights. We will never forget that it was Majority Leader Hoyer who discovered a way out of the motion to recommit that Republicans thought would torpedo the bill last session. Majority Leader Hoyer has continued to run interference for this bill to ensure the same passage in the House this year that he successfully guided last session.
"The Republicans in the Judiciary Committee accepted the manager's amendment, which, like the Senate version, unfortunately means a further delay of a seat for the District until the next House election, in order to avoid special election issues and expenses, chiefly in Utah, and to help the bill through conference. This is one of the sacrifices we believe it was prudent to make, although any delay after more than 200 years is a bitter pill to swallow.
"In progress now in both houses, simultaneously, is an amendment process dominated exclusively by Republicans, who seek to make the bill unacceptable even to the District. Almost all of the Republicans offering amendments have long records of opposition to bills of almost any kind that benefit the District. The House Republicans submitted amendments that are virtually the same as those defeated during the last session, and they were defeated again today. In the Senate, an amendment to eliminate income taxes for residents of the District of Columbia was defeated. This amendment is not even a little bit serious, and that's why the amendment was defeated 91-7. Out of frustration, I offered a ‘no taxation without representation' amendment for D.C. at the height of the period when the Republicans, then in the majority, were looking for any taxes they could cut. Neither the House nor the Senate took up the bill when Republicans were in the majority and had their best chance."
"We believe we have the votes to defeat an unlikely Republican filibuster in the Senate as we did yesterday when we received 62 votes to proceed to consideration of the bill. Passage in both houses should be over by next week."