D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton

To follow-up on Martin’s post about the resurrection of the D.C. House Voting Rights Act, Eleanor Holmes Norton has emailed out the following statement (she’s stuck at home with laryngitis, according to her office). This constitutes Norton officially raising the white flag and giving up any real hope of scrubbing the gun amendment language completely from the bill. After a year of stalling while she looked for a way around it, Norton is finally on board with the “castor oil” plan.

“I have spent the last year working to get a clean D.C. Voting Rights bill, and have led the opposition to a gun attachment to the bill in Congress and in the city. However, the strength of gun forces in the Congress has grown, not diminished, over the year since we began working, first to get a clean bill, and, if not, to reach a compromise on the gun amendment. It is now clear that the gun amendment can be passed as a stand-alone bill or attached to another piece of legislation, and we see no better opportunity in sight for voting rights for our residents. The Democratic majorities in the Senate and in the House are already diminishing and are expected to be reduced even further. Moreover, this is the first time we have had a president in office who will sign the bill along with majorities in Congress to pass it. I have given this fight all that I had. There is nothing left to do but make the hard decision. I believe residents would not want us to pass up this once-in-a-life-time opportunity for the vote they have sought for more than two centuries.

“I am particularly grateful to our leaders, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) who have worked tirelessly, directly with us for a bill that can pass both houses this year.”