D.C. Vote Bill Sails Through Committee
Ranking Member Davis Hails 24-5 Vote as 'Latest Step in Long March'

March 13, 2007

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, hailed the committee's approval of his measure to give the District of Colombia a full vote in Congress as "the latest step in a long march to grant voting rights to residents of the nation's capital."

The committee approved, by a 24-5 vote, H.R. 1433, the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007, marking the second time in as many years the committee has voted out this measure by lopsided margins. Similar legislation passed 29-4 last year.

In the interest of maintaining the political balance that traditionally has accompanied increasing the membership of the House, the bill not only makes the D.C. representative in the House a full voting member, it grants another seat to Utah, which barely missed gaining a seat after the 2000 census. The Utah seat will be elected at large, Utah will gain an electoral vote in the 2008 elections, and the status of that seat will be reviewed after the 2010 census.

"I am pleased the committee has continued to see the wisdom of this legislation," said Davis, who co-sponsored the legislation, once again, with Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, (D-D.C.). "Through the confluence of circumstance and accident, the Great Compromise that birthed our Constitution and put the nation's capital here also produced a grotesque injustice we have, so far, been unable to right. The time is right for another great compromise to address this.

"Residents of the District of Columbia pay federal taxes. They have fought and died in 10 wars. They have risked life and limb to bring democracy to Baghdad; yet they have no say in the affairs of their own nation. That's wrong, and it needs to end now."

The bill now goes to the House Judiciary Committee. If approved there, it would move to the House floor, where consideration is expected later this month.

A full copy of Davis' opening statement can be found at http://republicans.oversight.house.gov