Disapproving the Action of the District of Columbia Council in Approving the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member and my colleague from Maryland for yielding.

It is so rich to hear the other side discuss the sacred right of voting, discuss what our veterans and our servicemembers fought for, and the sacred right of voting while defending and continuing to defend the disenfranchisement of American citizens in D.C. for their right to vote.

They don't believe in statehood. They don't believe in the actual enfranchisement and voting rights for D.C. residents who are U.S. citizens.

Yet, they have the audacity and the gall to not just continue in that position and claim they believe in the sacred right to vote while denying that right to vote to an overwhelmingly Black city, but then expanding their position--expanding their position--so that, in direct contradiction of their ``conservative'' values of small government and defending freedom, they have decided to expand the jurisdiction of this body to meddle into the business of D.C. residents.

The D.C. Council has the right to determine its policies for D.C. residents. If any Member of this body does not like that, they can feel free to change their registration, resign their post, and run for D.C. Council.

For those who are residents here of Washington, D.C., they could have gone, as the ranking member stated, to any one of the many hearings on this issue.

I understand that there may be disagreement. I understand that Republicans may not be happy with what the D.C. Council is doing, but when cities in Vermont pass the same provisions, when San Francisco, when nine Maryland cities brought up this provision, did the Republican Party corral all of Congress and bring this issue down to the floor for a vote?

No, they did not.

They are singling out the residents of the District of Columbia and expanding in the history of disenfranchisement that goes all the way back to the legacy of slavery, and they are bringing it right here to this floor. Because why? They don't have any real bills to debate. We are not here to talk about healthcare; we are not here to talk about abortion; we are not here to talk about voting rights. We are here to talk about the expansion and the continued subjugation and disenfranchisement of the people of the District of Columbia. Let them govern themselves.

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