Reducing Waiting Period For District Of Columbia Special Elections

Floor Speech

Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5702) to amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to reduce the waiting period for holding special elections to fill vacancies in the membership of the Council of the District of Columbia, as amended.

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Ms. NORTON. I now yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5702, which reduces the waiting period for special elections to fill certain vacancies in elected positions in the District of Columbia government from 114 to 70 days. I introduced this measure on July 1, 2010, and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee ordered the bill reported on September 23.

Mr. Speaker, this is a bill that, I have to apologize, comes before the House. I hope that in the next session of Congress such trivial matters--``trivial'' as far as Congress is concerned but of great moment to the District of Columbia--no longer have to come before you. They come before you because matters involving the structure of the District of Columbia are contained in the charter. Although the bill before you has been passed by the city council, charter bills have to be passed by Congress.

I don't think anybody cares how many days it takes to fill elected positions once a position becomes vacant in a particular city, in this case, the District of Columbia. Of course, the residents of the District of Columbia care mightily. We had two council members who were elected to other positions, and the ward council members' seats were vacant for 114 days. We get to the 70 days because that's what the council wants. I don't think anyone wants to have vacancies go on for very long in a democracy, because that means that these wards would be unrepresented in the D.C. council.

On the other hand, it takes time for people to gear up to run for new seats. So the council, in its wisdom, decided to reduce the time in half, and I don't think anyone in Congress would want to second-guess what a local jurisdiction believes on such a locally based issue. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 5702.

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Ms. NORTON. I appreciate the gentleman's remarks, and I certainly appreciate his support of the bill. I do want him to know that the Home Rule Act does delegate decisions precisely like this to the D.C. Government. I believe that the State government analogy is inapposite here. I don't think any Member of Congress believes that he or she is in a position to revise in any way what the local government would do in this regard, and I do believe that this kind of matter does clutter the committee calendar. It clutters the calendar of the House of Representatives at a time when we have very serious issues. I should think we would be looking for matters that have no concern for every single Member of this House except me.

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