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…but like everything on the Hill, it’s a mighty big step.

A bill introduced by D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton that would give the District substantially more flexibility in scheduling special elections was approved by a House committee yesterday. The bill still has to make it through the Senate, though, where it stalled during a previous congressional session.

The bill may not have seemed like a big deal until this year, when Harry Thomas, Jr.’s resignation from his Ward 5 seat on the D.C. Council kicked the wheels in motion on a special election to replace him. But because of a provision of the D.C. Home Rule Charter that mandates that the election can’t be held within 114 days of a declared vacancy, the city was left without the possibility of scheduling the election to coincide with the April 3 primary. Norton’s bill seeks to change that, allowing the city to schedule an election between 70 and 174 days after a vacancy.

The Ward 5 special election is set to take place on May 15 and will cost D.C. taxpayers $318,000, a fact not lost on Norton.

“This bill could have been named for the $318,000 the Senate will cost the District because of the anonymous hold that kept this bill from being passed last Congress. The District could have held the Ward 5 special election earlier if this bill had passed when I introduced it and the House passed it,” she said in a statement.