Local GOP Backs Voting Rights - D.C. Wire - Timeline: History of the Campaign for D.C. Voting Rights - washi. Supporters Upbeat About Bill to Give D.C. a Vote in Congress - M. Supporters of D.C. voting rights believe that they are on the verge of their biggest victory in at least 30 years as the Senate prepares to take up a bill this week creating a full House seat for the District. Two years ago, a similar measure failed to clear a key procedural hurdle in that chamber by three votes. Democrats picked up at least seven Senate seats in the elections last fall, boosting the current bill's chance of passage. They also expanded their majority in the House, where the bill is expected to be approved as early as next month.
"I think the votes are there. I think it's going to pass the Senate," said Sen. In decades of struggle for representation, D.C. residents' hopes have often been raised and then dashed. Although passage is likely, it is not ensured. "The question is whether there will be an attempt to foul it up by amending it," Hatch said in an interview. Even if the bill becomes law, it will probably be challenged in court. Representation for D.C. - washingtonpost.com - Mozilla Firefox. ENOUGH. That, thankfully, was the powerful message from House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) at yesterday's hearing on D.C. voting rights. He is not only correct about the intolerable injustice of American citizens being denied representation in their government but also that the debate has gone on for far too long. So it is welcome to hear his resolve to bring a voting rights bill to a quick vote -- a move that one hopes will spur similar action by the Senate.
Mr. Hoyer was, at his insistence, among the witnesses who testified before the House Judiciary subcommittee considering legislation to give the District a voting representative in the House. The unusual appearance of the majority leader as a witness at a hearing was a rebuke to suggestions that Congress shouldn't rush to consider this measure, that it has more important matters on its agenda. Much of yesterday's discussion came down to the now familiar back-and-forth over whether the measure is constitutional. D.C.'s Day in the Senate - Mozilla Firefox. IT WAS TO THE discredit of the Senate in 2007 that it would not allow even consideration of a bill to give D.C. residents voting rights. Indeed, the last time the second-class status of D.C. residents was debated on the Senate floor was 30 years ago. So today's vote on Senate Bill 160 -- the D.C.
House Voting Rights Act -- is more than overdue. It is time for the Senate to rectify its past mistakes and agree to hold an up-or-down vote on legislation giving District residents their rights as American citizens. The measure would give long-disenfranchised D.C. residents a voting representative in the House. Two years ago, similar legislation fell three votes short of the 60 needed to proceed to debate and consideration. As House Majority Leader Steny H.