Senate Committee Hears Bipartisan Support for D.C. Voting Rights Act
Feature Story by Celia Rhoads - 5/22/2007
Appearing before the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on May 15, Democratic and Republican witnesses alike expressed their support for a bill that would grant the 600,000 residents of the District of Columbia a voting representative in the House.
"To me, what we're gathered here to do today is mend a tear in the fabric of our American democracy," said Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, D. Conn., chairman of the committee and co-sponsor of the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007.
Many of the witnesses echoed this sentiment, including former New York Congressman Jack Kemp. Kemp scolded fellow Republicans who oppose the measure, one of whom, Senator Susan M. Collins, R. Maine, sits as Ranking Member on the committee.
Kemp asked Collins and other Senate Republicans to preserve the rich civil rights legacy of the Republican Party, characterizing opposition to D.C. voting rights as "embarrassing to the party of Abraham Lincoln."
The Republican Party, Kemp said, had "a chance to be recorded on the right side of a civil rights issue."
The District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007 would increase the number of seats in the House of Representatives from 435 to 437, adding one for the District of Columbia and one for the state of Utah, which missed gaining an additional seat in the last census.
A similar bill passed the House with sweeping bipartisan support in April, but has since been stalled in the Senate, facing a potential filibuster and White House veto.
Opponents of the bill cite Constitutional qualms as reasons for hesitation.
One such critic, George Washington University Law School Professor Jonathan Turley, the only witness of eight to testify against the bill, said that it violated the Constitutional condition that representatives be elected by the states.
Viet D. Dinh, former assistant attorney general for Constitutional matters under President Bush, disputed this claim in his testimony.
Dinh argued that the Constitution empowers Congress to "exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever" over the District, a power that includes, according to Dinh, granting representation.
Numerous witnesses also pointed to the fact that District residents already pay $6 billion in federal taxes, an obligation that the Constitution assigns only to the "states," but has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to include D.C. as well.
Perhaps the most dramatic moments came during the testimony of Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.), whose words inspired committee members Claire McCaskill, D. Mo., and Mark Pryor, D. Ark., to pledge their support as co-sponsors.
Norton became emotional while describing her great-grandfather's daring escape from slavery. He came to D.C., Norton said, "in a fugitive search for freedom."
Other witnesses testifying before the committee included D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Representative Tom Davis, R. Va., and Senator Orrin Hatch, R. Utah.
"This is a historic time for the citizens of the District of Columbia and a unique opportunity for Utah to receive a long overdue fourth congressional seat," said Sen. Hatch. "I intend to make the most of it and hope that my fellow Senate colleagues will support me in this endeavor."
The Committee is expected to vote on whether to send the bill to the floor in early June.
