The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to give the District of Columbia its first full vote in Congress in more than two centuries, a critical but early step in a difficult journey to make the bill a law.

Three days after thousands of D.C. residents marched on the U.S. Capitol to demand representation, House members voted for the D.C. Voting Rights Act 241-177, sending the bill to an uncertain fate in the Senate. The legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., would expand the 435-member House by two seats, one for the heavily Democratic District and the other for Republican-stronghold Utah.