Washington, DC--At the first of almost simultaneous markups by two committees, today the District prevailed with a decisive vote of 24-5 by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for passage of the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act.  In her opening statement, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) told the committee that the case for D.C. voting rights was closed when Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, James McHenry of Maryland and the other signers of the Constitution accepted the land for the nation's capital occupied by residents who already had voting rights in the Congress.  "The framers," she said, "would never have asked... and Virginia and Maryland would never have betrayed their own citizens by agreeing to relinquish the basic right of representation for which the Revolutionary War was waged."  Norton said that Congress itself has since reinforced the framers' understanding by compelling the District to meet the same obligations as the states, citing the District's obligation to pay federal income taxes, but she said, "the case is closed at the funerals of District residents who died fighting for the vote for the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan, as Washingtonians have in every war, including the war for 'the Republic for which we stand.'" 

        Republicans offered several amendments today.  Norton accepted an amendment that granted the District full voting rights but attempted to rule out D.C. representation in the Senate, an amendment, she said, that was a trap not worth a debate, offered to detract from the bill.  The amendment was an invalid attempt to bind a future Senate and therefore would be removed before the bill got to the House floor and was not worth a drawn-out debate, Norton said.  "I have been crystal clear that residents will not give up until they get their full citizenship rights and that stands now and until the last right has been granted."

        The Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the bill tomorrow (Wednesday) and a markup Thursday, both at 10 AM in Room 2141 Rayburn House Office Building.  The bill is expected to go to the House floor by the end of this month, before the April 2^nd congressional recess.

        The full text of Norton's opening statement follows.

        If we had a dollar for every word and action D.C. residents have spoken and done since they first petitioned Congress for a vote 206 years ago, I believe we could eliminate the deficit.  I am grateful for all those words and actions, but especially to the people who have been most directly responsible for the bill.  When time is rationed, therefore, it is best used to thank those who have made the occasion possible.  The idea was hatched, not by me or any D.C. resident, but by an outlander, my regional colleague who has been one of my best friends in the Congress.  Even if I had been in the majority, I could not have fashioned a bill with Utah as a partner.  Moved by his personal sense of right and wrong, Ranking Member Tom Davis used his insider political knowledge, his stature as a leader of his party, and his chairmanship to start us down the bipartisan path which must be traveled to expand representation in Congress.  Henry Waxman, first as ranking member and now as chair, has been my advisor, confidant, problem spotter and problem solver, whose principled effort for equal rights for D.C. residents began long before I was elected to Congress.

Thousands of Americans and others around the world, in the more than four years we have sought this bill, have contributed ideas, time and effort:  Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who added to her long and unequivocal push for full rights for District citizens, her personal attention and intervention when it counted most to move this bill forward; Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who has been as devoted and outspoken for this bill as if D.C. residents were his own constituents; Utah Governor Huntsman and the Utah delegation, Representatives Bishop, Canon, and Matheson who forged a unique partnership on their understanding that Utah and D.C. citizens felt the same sense of loss, were after the same precious right, and could get here together; Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, who has carried high his own personal banner for the rights for D.C. residents to match their burdens since being elected in 1964; the local and national civil rights organizations that formed themselves into a formidable D.C. voting rights coalition, led by D.C. Vote, which gave the effort structure, organizational know-how and boundless dedication; the official international human rights entities abroad that have gone on record to ask the United States to come into conformance with international law by granting voting rights to the citizens of its capital; my own colleagues of both parties and especially my Republican colleagues who have joined this effort for D.C. and for Utah out of principle; and of course the residents of this city, living and dead, who have fought for equal citizenship over the ages.

        If ever a case has been made, the case for representation of every citizen, excluding none, in every nation's legislature, has been made here and around the world.  For many Americans, it is made when they understand that the No Taxation Without Representation slogan of our own American Revolution of 1776 has yet to mean the citizens of the nation's capital.  For others, the case is closed at the funerals of District residents who died fighting for the vote for the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan, as Washingtonians have in every war, including the war for the "Republic for which we stand."  For my colleagues, the case is surely made after a reading of the historical record left by the framers.  Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, James McHenry of Maryland and all of the rest did not ask and would never have asked Virginia and Maryland to contribute land then occupied by their own citizens for the new capital of freedom in the world if they believed that these citizens would lose the rights they possessed then to be represented in Congress - and Virginia and Maryland would never have betrayed their own citizens by agreeing to relinquish the basic right of representation for which the Revolutionary War was waged.  Once the nation's capital was established, the framers believed that Congress would follow through on the promise of our Revolution.  Now, 110 congresses later, may their will be done.