Providing for Consideration of H. Res. 78, Permitting Delegates and the Resident Commissioner to Cast Votes in the Committee of the Whole

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H. RES. 78, PERMITTING DELEGATES AND THE RESIDENT COMMISSIONER TO CAST VOTES IN THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

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Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and for reminding this House of the bottom line.

The delegate vote resolution on the floor will confuse many, anger others, and needlessly divide the people's House about a right to vote settled by the Federal courts 14 years ago.

Mr. Speaker, during the 103rd Congress, I had just finished my freshmen year. When the Democrats were in the majority, I submitted a legal memorandum and requested and obtained the right to vote in the Committee of the Whole for the residents of the District of Columbia.

The House decided to include the other Delegates as well because we normally have all been treated the same. Of course, we had no objection.

The Democrats, however, sent the matter to outside attorneys and experts who confirmed that a Delegate vote would be constitutional, and the House acted.

The Republican minority then sued the House. However, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Court of Appeals both confirmed the constitutionality of the House's action in allowing Delegate voting in the Committee of the Whole, just as Congress had long done in subject matter committees created by the House.

The Republicans took control in the 104th Congress and withdrew the only vote the residents of the District of Columbia have ever had on the floor for more than 200 years.

I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, there is nothing left to debate about. The courts have now spoken. You had your say. In a debate when the Democrats did it the right way, simply put it in the rules and allowed full debate, you debated then. You took it to the courts. You debated again, and you took it to the Court of Appeals, and you debated it again. If there had to be a debate, it should have been on January 4 when this Congress convened.

But for reasons I have not been able to find, it wasn't in the rules the way it was in the rules when I first got this vote. I want to be clear, this was a breakthrough for the District of Columbia when after my first term, I got this vote. My residents, seeing the first thing trotted out of this House now is not H.R. 328, for 4 years we have tried to get the full vote, but the vote I got 14 years ago, regard this as a setback for the District of Columbia.

This House and the Senate in 2006 reauthorized the Voting Rights Act of 1965. My friends, the D.C. vote is the Voting Rights Act of 2007, and we will be held accountable to enact this bill.

This is not my fight. The civil rights movement has spent 4 years, 4 years in actions all over America to get support for the full House vote for the District of Columbia. Most Americans expect that a vote for the District of Columbia will be the vote they see come from the House first. They are going to be completely confused.

I ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle not to allow this needless debate to poison the atmosphere that Tom Davis and I have struggled to create for the last 4 years in a bipartisan bill for the full House vote for the District of Columbia.

The right to vote was taken out of the rules by the Republicans. If the Republicans took it out of the rules, it obviously was an obligation of the Democrats to put it back in. They had no alternative. Why not put it back in the rules? Why are we having to be drawn and quartered as Delegates out here? There are differences being drawn out here. Why is this debate dividing this House and seeking to divide the Delegates? Why is there a debate that divides me from my brothers and sisters who are Delegates? Why have you done this to us?

And don't you take the bait. Please don't take the bait. Respect the Delegates, not just me who pays Federal income taxes, but the other Delegates who fight and die in war disproportionately compared to the rest of us. What has my side done, giving the Republicans a nonissue?

Worse, they have subjected us to controversy and we don't want to be controversial. We want Delegates to be fully respected.

It is heartbreaking for me. This debate is entirely heartbreaking for me. As you know, this vote is not the full vote. That is what is heartbreaking. Look at the calendar. The calendar is empty because the committees are just organizing. Why isn't H.R. 328 the first bill out of the Democratic House? That is what I cannot explain to my constituents. They don't understand this debate. Somebody has got to come to this floor and tell me why I have to plead for the vote that the courts said I was entitled to 14 years ago.

It is time to go where we left off. Mark up at Judiciary Committee and let us get that vote out of here. For goodness sakes, you have got to give this vote to the Delegates. Move on.

The residents of the District of Columbia have been grateful for those Republicans who have supported our full House vote and for Democrats who have done so for so long.

The Delegate vote is unavoidable. Do it, get it done. But it is less than the full vote that the District of Columbia deserves and that you have supported. It does not set the standard have set for yourselves--to have me to come to the floor to ask for a vote that I won 14 years ago. The standard we have to meet is the standard we set for ourselves.

Full voting rights for the District of Columbia.

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