D.C. Voting Rights Passed by Senate Committee
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 11, 2009; 11:49 AM
A Senate committee approved a bill today that would give the District its first full seat in the House of Representatives, setting up a crucial vote by the full chamber sometime in the coming months.
The Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee passed the legislation 11 to 1 at its first business meeting in the new Congress. The lone "no" vote was cast by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.
It's not clear when the legislation will reach the Senate floor for what is likely to be the key vote on the measure. In 2007, a similar bill died in the Senate after falling three votes short of the 60 needed to head off a filibuster. But proponents believe they are now in better shape thanks to Democratic gains in the last election.
Committee chairman Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) said in an opening statement that "we hope and believe this is our year" to get the voting rights bill approved. The bill is expected to pass the House, as it did two years ago.
The bill would permanently expand the 435-member House by two seats. One would go to the overwhelmingly Democratic District, and the other to the state next in line to pick up a seat based on population. For the next few years, that state would be Utah, which leans Republican
Democrats, who generally support the D.C. vote legislation, currently hold a 58-41 advantage in the Senate. Many Republicans are opposed to the bill, saying it violates the Constitution and could lead eventually to two Senate seats for the District.
Jim Manley, a spokesman for Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), said the senator "will try and get it to the floor as quickly as we can." That could take weeks or even months, though, because of a congressional schedule jammed with priorities such as the economic stimulus package, the 2009 budget and the bank bailout.
Manley indicated that the majority leader's office had not yet had time to really scrutinize the D.C. vote legislation and assess its chances of passage. "We've got a new Congress, we need to see where the votes are" on the bill, he said.
Still, supporters were optimistic. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), the sponsor of the D.C. vote bill in the House, said she was pleased that both chambers had started considering the measure early in the session. A House subcommittee held a hearing on it last month.
"There was some talk of whether or not this bill would be moved this quickly, because it was foreseen we'd be deeply involved in stimulus," Norton said. "But you see the House and the Senate have shown they can walk and chew gum at the same time."
