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
2nd 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.
|