Senators introduce voting-rights bill for D.C.

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - A pair of U.S. Senators are joining forces to introduce a D.C. voting rights bill in the face of strong Republican opposition and the threat of a filibuster.

Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., announced Tuesday that they will take up the cause of enfranchisement, two weeks after a bipartisan voting rights measure was passed out of the House of Representatives. Lieberman has long been a supporter, but Hatch’s backing was deemed critical, what Lieberman called a “breakthrough,” to the legislation’s survival.

“Today, we have an historic opportunity finally to bestow upon the citizens of the District of Columbia the civic entitlement every other tax-paying American citizen enjoys no matter where he or she resides, and that is democracy's most essential right, voting representation in Congress,” Lieberman said during a news conference on Capitol Hill.

Both the House and Senate bills expand the House by two seats, one for the heavily Democratic District and the other for Hatch’s Republican-leaning Utah, which narrowly lost out on a fourth seat following the 2000 Census.

“This is a historic time for D.C. citizens and a unique opportunity for Utah to receive its long-overdue fourth congressional seat,” Hatch said.

There is a key difference between the measures, however: Under the House bill, Utah’s fourth seat would be statewide — safeguarding the state’s one Democratic congressman — whereas the Senate measure would redraw the map to establish a new fourth district.

DC Vote Executive Director Ilir Zherka said his advocacy organization “will work with our allies in both chambers and off the Hill to enact a bill that reconciles those differences.”

The Senate legislation will be directed to the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which Lieberman chairs. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. opposes the measure.

“I hope that nobody will filibuster this bill,” Hatch said. “It ought to be voted up or down.”

Critics, most from the GOP, argue the Constitution allows representation only “for the people of the several states,” and D.C. is not a state. Supporters, meanwhile, say the Constitution provides Congress broad authority over the nation’s capital.

D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D, and Virginia Rep. Tom Davis, R, co-sponsors of the House bill, both applauded the quick introduction of the Senate measure.

mneibauer@dcexaminer.com

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