President Barack Obama issued a statement this Emancipation Day morning urging passage of the D.C. House Voting Rights Act, by far his most full-throated and concrete effort in support of congressional voting rights for the District. It reads;
On this occasion, we remember the day in 1862 when President Lincoln freed the enslaved people of Washington, [...]
Ann Marimow of the Washington Post is reporting that Democratic leadership plans to bring a D.C. voting rights bill to the House floor "as early as next week."
The catch: Marimow reports the measure will include some sort of amendment constraining the District's gun-control laws—an idea massively unpopular among the city political establishment.
The bill would grant [...]
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has killed the D.C. House Voting Rights Act.
The decision to hold off on current legislation due to the threat of gun-related amendments follows a conference call on Sunday with various advocates and local politicos. A compromise gun legislation proposed by the office of Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was reviewed.
The consensus was [...]
Roll Call's Tory Newmeyer reports that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has backed off his earlier promises to bring the D.C. House Voting Right Act to the chamber's floor.
Reports Newmeyer:
"As a result of there not being a consensus, I don’t think we’re going to be able to move the bill at this point in time,” [...]
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer just appeared on WAMU-FM's Politics Hour to discuss the future of the D.C. House Voting Rights Act.
Hoyer acknowledged that "we've been distracted by the gun issue and a couple of other issues that haven't gotten as much publicity" but said he's been "talking to the mayor, talking to Vince Gray, [...]
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) clearly has little respect for home rule and the unique local situation of the District of Columbia—that would be why he chose to gut D.C.'s gun laws through a amendment to the D.C. House Voting Rights Act. So why should Congress respect his home state's unique local institutions?
Like legalized prostitution.
That would [...]
The District's had plenty of congressional bogeymen over the years. Recent names like Sam Brownback and Richard Shelby come to mind, sure, and if you reach back a little farther, there's folks like Joel Broyhill, John McMillan, and Theodore Bilbo.
These days, Nevada Sen. John Ensign's playing the role pretty well.
Ensign's the guy who introduced the [...]
OK, so you're worried about that gun amendment the Senate attached today to the D.C. House Voting Rights Act?
According to LL's game-planning here, you probably shouldn't be that worried. Civics lesson time, people:
LL watched the Senate cloture vote yesterday in the press gallery beside WTOP's inimitable Mark Plotkin. We both struggled to hear the votes as they were called—helped not at all by Plotkin's stream of anecdotes stretching back well into the '70s and beyond.
Then we heard: "Senator Cochran, aye."
Thad Cochran? Republican of Mississippi? Gentleman Southerner? Certainly [...]
The U.S. Senate is now taking roll call on a "point of order" on the constitutionality of the D.C. House Voting Rights Act.
The point was first raised this morning by Sen. John McCain. The vote essentially is on whether the measure before the Senate is out of order because it is unconstitutional; assuming the bill [...]
A press conference featuring Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Joe Lieberman, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty just wrapped up. All were in a suitably self-congratulatory mood over the D.C. House Voting Rights Act's survival of cloture earlier today.
Said Norton, "We see all lights on go, and we can say with [...]
Michael Steele, chair of the Republican National Committee, expressed full-throated support this afternoon for the D.C. House Voting Rights Act and said he was gratified that the bill passed cloture earlier today. He was buttonholed by LL as he entered the Senate wing of the Capitol with former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman.
"I think it's an [...]
U.S. CAPITOL—The D.C. House Voting Rights Act has passed its first test on the Senate floor, 62-34.
The roll is still being tallied, but here are some early surprises: Thad Cochran, of Mississippi voted yes, while fellow Republican Robert Bennett of Utah—a state that stands to benefit from the DCHRVA—voted no. Among the Democrats, Max Baucus [...]
With the D.C. House Voting Rights Act set to hit the Senate floor early next week, and with House consideration likely not far behind, things are looking up enough that LL can ask the question: What happens after the bill becomes law?
Well, Eleanor Holmes Norton isn't magically transformed from delegate into full-fledged congresswoman.
