The Hill is reporting that D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton indicated during this morning’s subcommittee hearing that she now expects the D.C. House Voting Rights Act to pass the House with a controversial amendment that would wipe out most of the District’s existing gun registration laws.

“For the first time, the leaders in both houses are looking very seriously at this gun law,” Norton said a hearing this morning. “And they are aware the gun law is going to become law.”

She continued, “Because we’re going to pass the D.C. House Voting Rights Act. We’re not letting anything stand in the way of that. There is no question in my mind these leaders are going to get this done. There’s also no question in my mind that if you have this attached to both bills, it’s law.”

This is a big change for Norton, who up until recently had been publicly scolding D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty for even suggesting that the city ought to consider accepting the gun amendment in order to get the voting rights bill passed. It appears as though Norton has since been convinced that moderate Democrats in the House are simply unwilling to let the bill come to a vote without the amendment, out of fear that the influential National Rifle Association will negatively “score” their votes if it does.

Here’s the problem with this plan: Republicans in the House largely don’t support granting the District a voting member, so most of them are likely to vote against the bill anyway. And liberal Democrats will surely have a hard time explaining to their constituents that they voted for the bill with the amendment. So now the question is, can the Democratic leadership even be assured that the bill itself will pass with the amendment? We’ll just have to wait and see.