March 13, 2007
Voting Rights Legislation Moves Forward
How many times have we written this headline, only to be disappointed as another roadblock gets thrown in the way of District voting rights? Far too many times. But we're a little more optimistic these days.
The Post is reporting that the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today endorsed the legislation that would finally grant the District a voting representative in the House of Representatives. The vote was 24-5. The legislation is set to be debated by the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow morning, and if passed there, could move to the House floor before the end of the month as Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) recently promised.
The folks over at D.C. Vote aren't taking any chances on tomorrow's hearing, and have asked that District residents show up and stand together in solidarity during the testimony of Bruce Spiva, chairman of the organization's board, who is defending the legislation. The hearing starts at 10:00 a.m. in Room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building. If you're available to attend the hearing, please RSVP to Lateefah Mims at lmims (at) dcvote (dot) org.
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I have a question: is this going to be a full law (requiring Senate vote and president signature) or is this more like a rule change, where the House make this change unilaterally?
full law.
Reid -- it's a full law, and the bill number is H.R. 1433.
I'm a bit unsure about DC voting rights. I want voting rights for the District, but I can't see how the Constitution would allow it without amendment or statehood.
Ok, so if it's a law, what's the status of the Senate bill?
I would say the Senate bill is/was DOA.
To the best of my knowledge, there is no corresponding Senate bill yet. Its not DOA -- it simply hasn't been proposed. Not surprising really, and my guess is, should it make headway in the House, a corresponding bill will be drafted. You can track all this lovely goodness by heading over to govtrack dot us and punching in the bill #.