Bill to give D.C. House seat advances

WASHINGTON -- The people of the District of Columbia were closer Tuesday to gaining the voting rights they were deprived of more than two centuries ago after the Senate agreed to take up a bill giving them a fully vested representative in Congress.

The Senate vote to debate the bill sets the stage for more legislative hurdles and a probable court challenge if the bill is enacted into law. But with the Senate action, D.C.'s 600,000 residents have their best chance of securing a real voice in Congress since a proposed constitutional amendment to enfranchise the federal capital failed a quarter-century ago.

"All lights are on go. There can be no turning back now," said Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district's nonvoting delegate in the House since 1991.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the vote was "a very big step toward addressing a wrong that has been going on for centuries." Congress, in enacting an 1801 law defining congressional jurisdiction over the new capital, did not provide district residents with a vote.

The bill would give the District a vote in the House starting in January 2011. To offset the near-certain Democratic pickup in D.C., it also adds a fourth seat for Republican-leaning Utah, bringing House membership to 437.

The Senate vote was emblematic of the shifts in power in Congress. Two years ago, after the House passed the bill, the Senate fell three votes short of the 60 needed to end a Republican-led filibuster. This year, with seven more Democrats in the Senate, the vote to take up the bill was 62-34. Eight Republicans voted to consider the legislation, while two Democrats opposed it.

Congress in 1978 approved a constitutional amendment giving the district representation in the House and the Senate, but it died when three-fourths of state legislatures failed to ratify it.

Senate action is needed because Congress in 1929 enacted a law fixing House membership at 435. That number was increased to 437 after Alaska and Hawaii became states, but reverted to 435 after the 1960 census.

If supporters prevail, the Senate could pass the bill later this week. The House Judiciary Committee is voting on it today and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said he expected to bring it to the House floor next week. President Obama supports it, unlike former president George W. Bush who threatened to veto it over constitutional issues.

The main argument against the bill is that the Constitution makes clear that the House should consist of members chosen "by the people of the several states." Because the district is not a state, it does not qualify.

"The meaning of this language is not ambiguous," said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. "Only states can be represented in the House of Representatives."

Supporters come back by citing another clause in the Constitution stating the Congress shall have legislative authority over the district that becomes the capital "in all cases whatsoever."

Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, a lead sponsor of the bill that adds a seat to his home state of Utah, also noted that for 200 years courts have treated D.C. as a state in such matters as interstate commerce, taxation, and federal lawsuits. "This legislation's constitutional foundation is solid," he said.

But Utah's second senator, Bob Bennett, who supported the bill two years ago, says he will oppose it this time. He cited constitutional concerns and said he was confident that Utah will pick up a fourth congressional seat anyway after the 2010 national census.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., the co-sponsor with Hatch, said it was an embarrassment that the United States is the only democracy in the world that deprives the citizens of its capital a national legislative vote. He added that D.C. has as many or more people as the states of Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming, and that its residents and businesses paid more than $20 billion in federal taxes in 2007, more than 19 states.

Judy Wilson, a business analyst from Capitol Hill, said she gets excited every time it seems D.C. is on the verge of gaining a vote in Congress. "It's a shame a sophisticated country as America is bound by something that was written eons ago," she said.

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Associated Press writers Brian Westley and Kamala Lane contributed to this report.

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The bill is S. 160.

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