DC Voting Rights March Hailed as Success; House to Consider Bill Soon

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Rain and cold temperatures were not enough this past Monday (April 16) to deter residents of the District of Columbia (including newly-elected Mayor Adrian Fenty) from marching in support of long-awaited voting rights in Congress. An estimated crowd of 3,500 turned out for the largest gathering regarding the issue in decades, which featured a march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the U.S. Capitol.

The District of Columbia, which has nearly 400,000 voting residents who are required to pay all federal taxes, has never enjoyed voting representation in either the House or Senate. Numerous attempts at providing these rights, including a constitutional amendment in the 1970s, all ultimately failed. This past year, the issue resurfaced as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) threw her support behind a new bill (H.R.1905), sponsored by District Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) and Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), which would grant the District a voting member in the House, and provide an additional seat for the state of Utah (which missed an additional seat by a mere 857 residents following the 2000 census). Norton and Davis have touted the measure as "partisan-neutral," for the District is overwhelmingly Democratic and Utah is traditionally a Republican-dominated state. The bill was initially brought up in the House in March, but was pulled from the floor after Republicans attempted to attach an amendment repealing the District’s handgun ban. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) promised to bring it back this month with a new set of rules, and is expected to do so Thursday (April 19).

If the bill passes in the House, there is no guarantee it will become law. The battle in the Senate is expected to be more contentious, where Democrats hold a narrow 51-49 majority and Republicans can effectively filibuster any measure which lacks the support of sixty senators. In addition, the Bush administration has expressed opposition to the measure on constitutional grounds, and acknowledged in a statement that aides would advise President Bush to veto it.

We at Congresspedia have been closely following all of the action regarding voting rights in the District of Columbia, and now have several pages detailing current and past legislative efforts, support and opposition, and constitutional arguments regarding the issue. We urge you to check them out, and help us by improving them with your own edits!