2008 Woodie Awards
View print edition front page as a PDF
News
Limited voting rights restored to D.C. delegate
Washington, D.C. delegate to push for comprehensive bill
By Howard Perlman on 2/1/07
AU students and professors have mixed reviews on the future of District congressional voting rights after Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., and other non-state representatives in the House of Representatives Thursday regained a voting right they lost in 1995. Norton is still working on a bill that would give non-state representatives full voting rights.
The House restored the ability of non-state representatives to vote on amendments to bills on the House floor in a 226 to 191 vote that showed a party-line split with Democrats favoring the measure and Republicans opposing it.
John Ciprani, a sophomore in both the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Public Affairs and the outreach director for College Democrats, said he welcomed Norton's restored ability.
"I find it unconstitutional that D.C. representation in Congress does not have full voting rights within the House of Representatives," Ciprani said. "Change is never immediate in American politics, so to see some gains made by the many who live in D.C. is encouraging and perhaps telling of the new Democratic Congress' progressive policy."
Norton, who first attained the right to vote on floor amendments in 1993, is now working with Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va., to reintroduce H.R. 328, the District of Columbia Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act. If implemented, the legislation would grant the District a House seat with full voting rights and increase Utah's representation by one seat, a bipartisan balance between an overwhelmingly Democratic city and heavily Republican state.
Maryann Barakso, an assistant professor in the SPA, said in an e-mail that H.R. 328 will most likely pass.
"The bill has a good chance of passage because the Utah seat would clearly be won by a Republican, thus keeping the partisan balance in Congress," Barakso said. "It is important to remember that this does not give D.C. statehood and has no bearing on representation on the Senate."
The House restored the ability of non-state representatives to vote on amendments to bills on the House floor in a 226 to 191 vote that showed a party-line split with Democrats favoring the measure and Republicans opposing it.
John Ciprani, a sophomore in both the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Public Affairs and the outreach director for College Democrats, said he welcomed Norton's restored ability.
"I find it unconstitutional that D.C. representation in Congress does not have full voting rights within the House of Representatives," Ciprani said. "Change is never immediate in American politics, so to see some gains made by the many who live in D.C. is encouraging and perhaps telling of the new Democratic Congress' progressive policy."
Norton, who first attained the right to vote on floor amendments in 1993, is now working with Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va., to reintroduce H.R. 328, the District of Columbia Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act. If implemented, the legislation would grant the District a House seat with full voting rights and increase Utah's representation by one seat, a bipartisan balance between an overwhelmingly Democratic city and heavily Republican state.
Maryann Barakso, an assistant professor in the SPA, said in an e-mail that H.R. 328 will most likely pass.
"The bill has a good chance of passage because the Utah seat would clearly be won by a Republican, thus keeping the partisan balance in Congress," Barakso said. "It is important to remember that this does not give D.C. statehood and has no bearing on representation on the Senate."
Be the first to comment on this story