Senate to take up D.C. voting rights bill
WASHINGTON - The people of the District of Columbia were closer yesterday to gaining the voting rights they were deprived of more than two centuries ago, after the Senate agreed to take up a bill giving them a fully vested representative in Congress.
The Senate vote to debate the bill sets the stage for more legislative hurdles and a probable court challenge if the bill is enacted into law. But with the Senate action, D.C.'s 600,000 residents have their best chance of securing a real voice in Congress since a proposed constitutional amendment to enfranchise the federal capital failed a quarter-century ago.
"All lights are on go. There can be no turning back now," said Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district's nonvoting delegate in the House since 1991.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said the vote was "a very big step toward addressing a wrong that has been going on for centuries." Congress, in enacting an 1801 law defining congressional jurisdiction over the new capital, did not provide district residents with a vote.
The bill would give the district a vote in the House starting from January 2011. To offset the near-certain Democratic pickup in D.C., it also adds a fourth seat for Republican-leaning Utah, bringing House membership to 437.
The Senate vote was emblematic of the shifts in power in Congress. Two years ago, after the House passed the bill, the Senate fell three votes short of the 60 needed to end a Republican-led filibuster. This year, with seven more Democrats in the Senate, the vote to take up the bill was 62 to 34. Eight Republicans voted to consider the legislation, while two Democrats opposed it.
Congress in 1978 approved a constitutional amendment giving the district representation in the House and the Senate, but it died when three-fourths of state legislatures failed to ratify it.
Senate action is needed because Congress in 1929 enacted a law fixing House membership at 435. That number was increased to 437 after Alaska and Hawaii became states, but reverted to 435 after the 1960 census.
If supporters can beat back what could be hostile amendments and a possible GOP effort to block a vote, the Senate could pass the bill this week. The House Judiciary Committee is voting on it today and House majority leader Steny Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, said he expects to bring it to the floor next week. President Obama supports it.
