On Friday afternoon, we reported that House Democratic leaders were thinking about trying something a bit sneaky for D.C. voting rights, by attaching a measure to a defense spending bill that would give the District a House seat. The rationale is obvious — many Republicans and conservative Democrats have complicated passage of the stand-alone voting rights proposal, so tacking it on to a larger bill they won’t want to vote against ensures that it will finally move forward.

Of course, when Republicans heard of the rumor, they weren’t pleased, arguing that D.C. voting rights has no place in a defense spending bill. Responding to those concerns, on Thursday Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) argued otherwise. “Now whether or not that will be included in the Defense bill, it is about democracy. It is about participation. It is about respect…I will tell my friend that I will continue to fight as hard as I can to try to figure out how I can bring that bill to the floor, get it to a vote, and give the people of the District of Columbia, our fellow citizens, the right to vote as the citizens in Baghdad can do, the citizens in Moscow can do, the citizens in every free country in the world except the United States of America, can do.”

Watch his full statement above.