As promised, Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) introduced legislation to create a Congressional seat for D.C., as well as a new seat for Utah, this afternoon. Of course, this doesn’t mean the bill was debated or even mentioned on the Senate floor. While we sat eagerly by the television, fingers twitching to live blog the whole thing, it seems DCist should have been brushing up on our School House Rock. The senators met in a side office to introduce the bill, but it still has to be assigned a position on the calendar and make it through the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee before making its appearance on the Senate floor. We’re not sure how long the process will take, but at least the ball is rolling.
The good news is, we’ve only got to convince 97 other senators to get on board. Our friends at DC Vote told us by phone that Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) has signed on in support of voting rights. We’ve had some highs and lows following the House’s successful voting rights bill, and know there’s an uphill battle from here, but let’s all cross our fingers and hope the issue can find open minds when it eventually reaches the floor.
Photo by Flickr user Hoffman.
