A Senate Committee overwhelmingly passed a measure yesterday that would give Washington DC its first real voting seat in Congress.  The Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs voted 11-1 in favor of the bill which will now move on to a final vote in the full Senate.  The sole No vote on the measure came from Arizona Senator John McCain (who perhaps had sour grapes over losing DC by the lopsided tally of 93% - 7% in last November’s Presidential election).

The District of Columbia has never had a voting Representative or Senator in Congress due to no provision for it in the US Constitution, despite the fact that its 550,000+ residents pay Federal taxes, an injustice which has lead to DC’s automobile license plates advertising “Taxation Without Representation.”  Previous attempts in recent history to give the District Congressional representation have always been blocked by Republicans as the seats would be practically guaranteed to be Democratic. The measure currently before Congress would also add a reliable Republican seat in Utah as a compromise.   Now the bill needs to (surprise!) simply find the votes in the Senate to overcome a potential GOP filibuster, something a similar vote in 2007 did by a mere 3 votes.  There is no arguing that DC needs representation in Congress and needs it now.  But the problem is that this bill is still unconstitutional (something McCain actually mentioned as his reason for opposing it) and it can be easily struck down in any federal court.  But even with that in mind, it’s still worth a try, if for nothing more, to simply bring more attention to the matter.

You can takepart in encouraging voting rights for residents of Washington DC by logging onto DCVote.org.

LINKS:

WaPo: Senate Committee Passes DC Vote Bill

Washington Informer: Senate Committee Approves DC Voting Rights Act

Washington Times: DC Voting Rights Advances in Senate