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DCist Reader Traci Kidwell was paying attention when we were live blogging preliminary debate in the Senate ahead of Tuesday's successful cloture vote on the D.C. House Voting Rights Act. In case you weren't, here a refresher: Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl (R), the Minority Whip in the Senate, trotted out an argument previously made famous by Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (R).
"The District does not lack for representation in Congress," Kyl said. "It actually already has representatives in Congress, 100 Senators and 435 House members, all of whom, under the Constitution itself, have the jurisdiction and indeed the obligation to provide for the general welfare of the residents of the District of Columbia."
We then posted contact information for Sen. Kyl's office, including the email address for his chief of staff, Tim Glazewski, and encouraged our readers to take the senator up on his promise to provide for our general welfare. Traci did just that, and sent us Sen. Kyl's response. We've posted it below, along with Traci's original letter.
Date: Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 11:03 AM Subject: Response message from Senator Kyl
Thank you for your recent email to my staff, commenting on my remarks about the D.C. House Voting Rights Act, S. 160, and requesting assistance in resolving various problems affecting residents of the District of Columbia.
Unless you are suggesting that Congress should repeal Home Rule for the District and reclaim primary responsibility for the City's operations, I would encourage you to contact Mayor Fenty and members of the D.C. City Council to share your concerns. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is also available to assist with constituent service involving federal matters.
As I said on the floor of the Senate, Members of Congress, by their very presence living and working in the Washington area, have a stake in a well run City, and Congress has given the District's government substantial federal resources to help promote that outcome. In fact, as I pointed out in my remarks on February 24, City residents pay an average of $11,582 in federal taxes each year, yet receive back nearly six times that amount -- $65,109 -- from the federal government, according to a study by the non-partisan Tax Foundation. That is six times more than New Mexico, the state with the next highest return.
A final point: Article I of the U.S. Constitution is explicit in limiting representation in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate to the states. Those who wish to change that should do so the right way, i.e., by proposing an amendment to the Constitution, working for its approval by both houses of Congress, and then seeking ratification by the requisite number of states.
No one is allowed to ignore the Constitution or avoid the amendment process simply because it is easy or convenient to do so, or yields more immediate results.
Sincerely,
JON KYL United States Senator
Traci's letter to Kyl chief of staff Tim Glazewski:
Hello Mr. Glazewski,
As the chief of staff for our new volunteer representative, I wanted to take a minute to highlight some issues that plague the residents of the District of Columbia.
* K Street, from approximately 21st St NW to 9th St NW, is covered in potholes. The road is dangerous to drive on and I'm sure it's damaging each of our cars every day.
* The Boys & Girls Club that was located on 17th St SE was closed approximately 2 years ago, and the recreation center at Payne Elementary School on C St SE was closed last fall due to despondent employees. These closures left the neighborhood kids with no options for after school activities. Payne Elementary offers after care to their students, and a non profit group - Neighbors United - has signed a lease to occupy the recreation center and offer programs for area kids. It would be great if the city could give even a portion of the money that was being spent on the recreation center to Neighbors United in the form of a grant so that they can continue to offer activities to the neighborhood.
* Lead in the drinking water - I think we all know now that we have a serious issue. Please provide safe drinking water to all citizens.
* The issue with the release of inmates from the detention center located in Ward 6 is troubling to many residents. AG Peter Nickels wants to lift the ban and allow inmates to be released at all times. I believe that since the underlying issue is the jail's inability to process paperwork in a timely manner, that the jail should be held accountable as opposed to punishing the neighborhood residents. We already have problems with the released inmates asking for money for transportation out of the neighborhood, and I would prefer to not get those types of solicitations in the middle of the night. Does it really benefit a prisoner to be released in the middle of the night? What types of services & assistance are they going to receive at that time? The Dept of Corrections should be processing the release of inmates in a timely manner and should be providing them transportation back to their homes.
That's all I have for now but I look forward to working with you in the future to resolve the issues that plague the residents of D.C.
Traci Kidwell 15th & C SE
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What a d-bag dodge of his d-bag initial statement.
I'm looking forward to voting against him in the 2012 nationwide "general welfare of the residents of the District of Columbia" elections.
What a d-bag dodge of his d-bag initial statement.
I'm looking forward to voting against him in the 2012 nationwide "general welfare of the residents of the District of Columbia" elections.
"please provide safe drinking water" FTW!
Wow - he didn't even try to pretend like he cares about the District. I thought he would at least pretend that the interests of the residents of DC were near and dear to his heart.
Just amazing. Perhaps blowhard public officials should learn to think before they read what their speechwriters wrote for them, lest they be held accountable for their statments made on public record.
Sucks to say this, but he's probably right about the need for an amendment. Any half-hearted legal challenge will wind up before the S.C., which will of course abide by the Constitution. Might as well do this right while there's the political capital/will.
The last time the Constitution was amended was in '92 and that was a blowhard, grandstanding move by the Congress about its own pay. The majority of the country doesn't know or care about the lack of voting representation in Congress for DC citizens and I can't see that changing any time soon.
I can't wait to tell my brother in Cottonwood, Arizona, that we have the same Senator. Next thing you know, our DC summers will be called "a dry heat!"
At least Darth Vader had a helmet to hide his evil smile.
"d-bag" or not. he is right. And since when are potholes a federal matter?
Bloodorange, you and our dear Senator may be correct about the need for a Constitutional amendment; however, potholes in the District of Columbia are a federal issue. Congress creates the operating budget for the entirety of the District through the federal appropriations process.
Since DC lacks statehood, they also lack other things like an independent state budget. John Kyl is partly responsible for the operating budget of DCDOT, therefore potholes.
Do Republicans really want to go the whole "you get 6x the $ back" route? Looking at the same report, there are a lot of red states getting back a lot more then they put in. If it's unfair that DC residents get more tax money back than they put in, then it's just as unfair that Mississippi and Alaska get such largesse when CA, NY, and IL get screwed over.
Congratulations Senator Kyl! You are the winner of the Second Annual Monkeyrotica-Brand® Poop-in-a-Cup Award for Douchebagginess Above and Beyond the Call of Duty! You joint the distinguished roster of recipients that includes Jim "Never Met a Metro Station Name He Couldn't Extend" Graham and the Right Honorable Baby-eating, Kidney-swiping Councilman Who Needs No Introduction! A gift basket of feces is being rushed to your door! On fire! Be sure to put it out with your shoe!
"No one is allowed to ignore the Constitution or avoid the amendment process simply because it is easy or convenient to do so, or yields more immediate results."
This though, coming from a supporter of the Bush administration's terrorism policy, is priceless
That's ridiculous. So if somebody from Phoenix contacts him, does he say sorry, ask the Phoenix city council for help? I doubt it.
How much of that 65k goes to spending that benefits the public of DC, and not towards Federal Government-related expenditures?
boom! exactly! the vast majority of the $65K goes into things like the buildings in the federal core, security for those, etc. if he doesn't know, or recognize, this, he really should stick to stuff he actually knows about.
just because you can quote a think tank doesn't make you an expert, senator.
what a maroon.
I also wrote Senator Kyl's chief-of-staff an email - completely different than the one posted here - and got the same response. If he thinks we need a constitutional amendment - why doesn't he work to pass one?
A perfectly appropriate response in terms of the Constitution and in terms of referring you to the DC government.
The real question is how do I go about registering to vote in all 50 states in order to participate in the choosing of my elected representatives and senators?
Idea:
Can someone create a handy method by which residents of the District can submit their "state" level concerns (education, environment, infrastructure, etc) to every single senator and Rep in one go? Yeah, I know I can make my own distribution list in my email client, but I'm thinking of something that anyone can use, easily. So the next time gay marriage amendments (speaking of supposed sanctity of the Constitution) come up, the residents of the District can chime in to all the Senators and Reps of all the Several States. If we can't join them and we can't shake them, they should at least hear from us.
This must already exist... Shouldn't we start acting like constituents with the MOST representation?
Nice idea, but as you may imagine, all sorts of well-(or not so well) meaning people have made attempts at this sort of thing in the past. In fact, I was paid to do this once! Here's one route that is not a one-shot-deal, but is what's the standard for contacting all them elected officials.
Go here: http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/powersearch.htm
Find a Senator/Rep, then click the Email link.
You'll be sent to a page with form fields to enter your message.
The kicker is, they actually SAY that they'll only respond to RESIDENTS OF THEIR STATE. Stinkers.
Dear Mr. Kyl,
I'm not sure that repealing Home Rule would actually take care of the residents of the District considering Congress uses our backyards as a personal landfill. But I can think of a few things that would actually help us out a little more, since you're one of our newest 100 senators and all.
First, declare the District as your primary residence and start paying the city back property taxes (maybe you're one of those kind enough to rent in a group house, but I bet if you bought a house, you'd be doing us all a favor).
Second, if you have kids or grandkids, they should all be attending DCPS at least half of the year, then maybe you'd know what it was to actually be a parent of a child in a failing school system.
And finally, and only because I'm at work and don't have time to come up with a longer list, tell me why, only now, after how many years of home rule, DC is only now getting it's own crime lab instead of having to wait for the FBI to process DNA, but only when a suspect is in custody. You had rule before and didn't do it then.
Petitq
Southwest
Did Senator Kyl send a wreath or visit the family (or send a staffer to visit the family) of Specialist Daryl Dent when he was killed in Iraq? What about the other fallen servicemen and women who sacrificed for thsi country without having full political freedoms for themselves here in the District of Columbia? Did any of the 100 Senators who supposedly represent us offer any kind of condolences or do they just attend funerals in their own states?
Does anybody have a good breakdown of the federal $$ that comes to DC? A goodly portion of that $65000 each DC resident supposedly gets has got to be for things like running the federal government, pensions for federal retirees, etc.
But I've never seen a valid breakdown that actually calculates where we stand in comparison to other states as far as actual things 'we' get from the Feds when you separate out the running of the federal government component.
i say we spam him as much as possible
But his response, unhelpful as it may be, does illustrate just how little Fenty and some of the councilmembers care about you all. Home Rule has not been good for the District of Columbia.
(I do resent his "Washington area" remark, though. A Senator who lives in some McMansion out in Northern Virginia and drives a car into town contributes nothing to this particular city.)
They care more than Congress ever would.
Perhaps the easiest thing to do is just have DC secede from the Union.
That would be pretty hilarious, but how is that even possible?
The junior senator can suck it. His party has proven time and again that they only observe the rules that suit them.
Anyone making the argument that the 'only states' clause in the constitution trumps 'no taxation without representation' is delusional.
Yeah Traci!
Kyl smells of shit and belongs in a toilet.