Permitting Delegates and the Resident Commisioner to Cast Votes in the Committee of the Whole

PERMITTING DELEGATES AND THE RESIDENT COMMISSIONER TO CAST VOTES IN THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

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Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his gracious introduction and work on this debate.

The other side really doth protest too much. Most Delegate votes, of course, don't carry the day, so a revote is not necessary.

If the vote doesn't count, if the vote is only symbolic, then it certainly has not been worth 2 hours of votes to adjourn, as if the world was coming to an end. It certainly has not been worth the insults to the Delegates. It certainly has not been worth the disgrace to the House of Representatives to have Members of this venerable House come down and take to the floor to argue against the right to vote that has been upheld by the Federal courts of the United States. It certainly isn't worth besmirching your name in that way, and besmirching ours because that debate has occurred here.

The matter before us is no longer subject to debate in a political body in our political system because that matter has gone the full way in our system. And the courts in our system, my friends, have the last word in our system on matters of constitutional right. You have got to understand that.

Using regular order, Mr. Speaker, right after my freshman year I wrote a memo arguing for the Committee of the whole vote. The Democrats didn't handle this matter lightly. Nobody in 200 years had argued that Delegates should have a vote on the House floor; they sent the memo to outside counsel, then they subjected it to debate in the Rules. The first day of the 103rd Congress the Republicans argued strongly against the matter. And then they did something very unusual, they took the House to court and lost in the district court and the court of appeals. This is a system of laws in which we work.

They had two more times to debate in the courts, in the trial court and in the court of appeals. They finally had their way politically. They had their way, notwithstanding what the Federal courts had found, and they yanked the authority, court-approved authority of Delegates to vote out of the rules the moment they came to power, showing no respect for the Delegates, and an insult to the Democrats who had tried to maximize participation in the people's House.

I was thrilled and grateful to get that vote then, I welcome the vote now, but it is very hard to be grateful to the House or anybody else for a vote you are entitled to. A vote that offers so little for Americans who have given so much should be hard even for the other side to resist.

The test for the 110th Congress is not the Delegate vote, however. The test is the District of Columbia House voting rights bill, where we left off at the Judiciary Committee.

I want to thank Representative Tom Davis and the cosponsors of that bill. I want to thank the Democrats. I can't go anywhere in my own caucus that they don't say, when are we going to get to vote on your full House bill?

The Democrats have devoted decades of energy to full voting rights. I ask that the House bring forward H.R. 328 so that the House can vote on a full House vote for the District of Columbia.

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