Speeches
Pelosi On D.C. Voting Rights: ‘Today Is a Proud Day for This House, the District of Columbia, and our Nation’
04/19/2007
Washington,
D.C.—Speaker Nancy
Pelosi spoke on the floor this afternoon endorsing the D.C. Voting Rights bill,
which passed by a vote of 241 to 177.
“Mr. Speaker, four weeks ago, our
vote was deferred, but today, we will fulfill our obligation to do right by the
citizens of the
“By doing so, we will do justice
for all of our citizens. Today is a proud day for this House, for the
“I commend the steadfast
leadership and tenacity of the gentlelady from the
“Mr. Speaker, I take some personal
pleasure in today’s proceedings, because when I was born, my father was a Member
of Congress. He was on the Appropriations Committee and he chaired the
“This bipartisan effort to secure
full voting representation in this House should command the support of all.
Indeed, 82 percent of the American people support the
“As the Supreme Court has said:
‘No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the
election of those who make the laws under which we, as good citizens, must
live.’
“Today, we seek to affirm an
enduring principle of our democracy: the right to be heard and represented
fully. For more than 200 years, the citizens of the
“Mr. Speaker, every single day
that this Congress is in session, we take a pledge to the flag and to the
republic for which it stands. At the end, we say, ‘with liberty and justice for
all.’ That ‘for all’ must include the people of the
“
“Now is the time to honor our
democracy. We will not rest until full voting representation in the House is
granted to the