The Senate is scheduled to take up the D.C. voting rights debate today ahead of a critical floor vote Tuesday, and while supporters believe the numbers are on their side, they are careful not to be overconfident.
“We’re optimistic, but we’ve learned that our opponents are smart and determined,” said Ilir Zherka, executive director of D.C. Vote. “We don’t want to assume we have the votes until those votes are cast.”
The D.C. Voting Rights Act proposes to add two seats to the U.S. House of Representatives, one for Democratic stronghold D.C. and the other, at least initially, for Republican-leaning Utah. Utah narrowly missed out on an additional seat after the last reapportionment.
Today’s floor debate leads into Tuesday’s cloture vote, which will determine whether proponents have the wherewithal to quash a filibuster. Supporters need 60 votes to end debate and raise the bill for final consideration, which could happen Wednesday.
Opponents say the bill flagrantly violates the U.S. Constitution, which allots House seats only for the people of the “several states.” But proponents contend the Constitution’s District clause provides Congress with unlimited power over D.C., including the right to enfranchise its citizens.
The same bill fell three votes shy of Senate passage in September 2007, but backers believe the balance of power has since shifted enough to put the act over the top. Democrats now control several additional Senate seats and the White House.
D.C. Vote’s Senate head count in 2007 was 61 votes, Zherka said, before four presumed supporters walked away at the last minute.
Among the possible bumps ahead: Democrat Al Franken, who may have won the Minnesota Senate race, has yet to be seated; Sen.
Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., will likely miss the vote due to his deteriorating health; and Sens. Robert C. Byrd and Max Baucus, both Democrats, are expected to oppose the legislation, as they did in 2007. Democratic Sen. Kay R. Hagan, D-N.C., is reportedly on the fence.
But the measure also has its share of non-Democratic support, including independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who introduced the bill, and Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, a co-sponsor. Six other Republicans who backed the measure in 2007 still hold their seats: Robert F. Bennett, Susan M. Collins, Richard G. Lugar, Olympia J. Snowe, Arlen Specter and George V. Voinovich.
A virtually identical bill is idling in the House Judiciary Committee, but it is expected to eventually win the approval of that panel and the full House as it did two years ago. Final passage in the House could come next month.
