Photo by Mark Poblete

The Washington Post is reporting the long-stalled bill that would finally grant the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives may be re-introduced as early as next week.

According to the Post, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer today indicated that details are still being ironed out, but the bill will likely have some version of the original gun amendment that stalled it last summer. The amendment, supported by various Republicans and conservative Democrats, would do away with the city’s existing gun laws. (A similar amendment was added to a Senate version of the legislation passed last year.)

D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has fiercely opposed any version of the gun amendment, seems to have changed her tune, telling a gathering of the Georgetown Democrats yesterday that while any such amendment is “odious,” she’s just trying to keep as many of the city’s gun laws intact as she can. And to the Post, Norton said: “This is the best chance we’ve had to get a House vote for D.C. in my lifetime. Nobody would leave it on the table because it’s not at all clear when there will be another chance.”

Mayor Adrian Fenty has expressed support for moving the legislation forward with the amendment, but it remains to be seen what mayoral challenger and D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray and other officials will have to say about this development. With the South Capitol Street quadruple homicide fresh in people’s minds and a recent court ruling that the District’s gun restrictions are constitutional, it’s likely that some members of the council will continue to oppose any amendment that limits future action they can take against guns.

And if we may, allow us to apply the brakes here just a bit. Hoyer and (especially) Norton have routinely made excessively optimistic projections about the future of this bill over the last year, only to see nothing actually happen. Plus, the House Rules Committee still has no indication of a date for when the bill might be brought to the floor, according to a senior staffer we spoke to today.

The news does coincide nicely with D.C. Emancipation Day, which takes places this Friday. The D.C. government and a variety of local groups have organized a number of related events, including a rally and march at Franklin Square at 11 a.m. DC Vote, which has pushed for the voting rights bill over the last three years, is also hosting an Advocacy Day on Friday.