Two area U.S. House members are teaming up to introduce a voting rights bill that appears to have bipartisan momentum and might finally win the city’s 550,000 residents a voice on the House floor.
U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., and District Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D, unveiled compromise legislation Thursday to permanently expand the House from 435 to 437 seats, with one seat going to Democrat-dominated D.C. and the other, for now, to GOP-controlled Utah. Davis has introduced the bill twice before, in different incarnations, but never with Norton’s support.
Davis said this bill “not only meets constitutional muster but is politically amenable to both sides.” He said he was confident the bill would have support in the Senate, and would not be vetoed by President Bush, if it gets out of the House.
Under the proposal, Utah’s seat would be at large, eliminating any opportunity for that state to gerrymander its one Democratic congressman out of his district.
Norton, who has long pressed for full D.C. voting rights, said it was a strategic decision not to back Davis’ previous legislation. Supporting a doomed bill in a partisan atmosphere could backfire, she said, limiting any chance for future adoption.
“It is the undeniable reality that party equivalence in one form or another has driven decisions for adding voting representation,” Norton said.
The District’s brief symbolic floor vote
» Jan. 5, 1993: Eleanor Holmes Norton given right to vote on House floor, so long as vote does not determine outcome.
» Nov. 21, 1993: District statehood bill defeated on House floor.
» Jan. 4, 1995: Norton’s right to vote stripped by Republican-controlled Congress.
