This morning the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs approved legislation granting the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives, sending the measure to the full Senate for cosideration. The vote was 9-1, with Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) casting the lone dissenting vote (seriously, can’t Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) have a talk with this guy?). Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Senator George Voinovich (R-Ohio), all considered key votes, sided with the measure.

We here at DCist are getting as giddy as we were when the House approved the legislation in late April, but we’re also aware that the Senate operates on very different rules and traditions. While legislation can usually pass the House through the sheer will and numbers of the majority, the Senate offers any number of procedural holds, including some that can be used anonymously. Just last month three senators held up legislation granting Mayor Adrian Fenty control of the District’s schools, one for a reason as mundane as his continuing grief with the taxi zone system (yes, Sen. Levin, we’re looking at you!).

So we remain hopeful, but this thing won’t pass itself. We’ll make sure to have updated information on when it might be debated, who’s likely to oppose it and how far that opposition might go.