The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on September 18, on the bill to give the District of Columbia its own voting member of the U.S. House, plus an additional seat for Utah. The bills are S1257 and HR 1906.
The House will probably vote on HR 811 next week as well. HR 811 is Congressman Rush Holt’s bill to require vote-counting the states to use vote-counting machines with a paper trail, when they conduct federal elections.
Listed in the dictionary under “Gerry Rigged” and near “Gerrymander”! Such a bad idea! Such a bad, bad idea!
Manuever the Ectorial Vote to include all United States Citizens, regardless of location, not stop gaps like this peace of garbage!
More proof that the United States is merely the latest imperial global empire with the ultimate fate of ALL global empires!
More proof that come ‘crunch time’ the Democans and the Republicrats are in cahoots, as in DC [Dems] and Utah [GOP]!
Uhh, ya, whatever.
This bill has serious consitutional issues with it. Only states are allowed to have seats in the US House according to it. Its very clear. If this bill passes (and hopefully it wont) I know it will be brought to the courts ASAP.
Im not against giving DC a voting seat in Congress, but it should be done in a consitutional manner.
Kyle, what is wrong with turning the District of Columbia into Maryland’s County of Columbia. Too simple? Too much [un] commond sense?
Don Lake does have a point though; it just seems wrong somehow to have a seat cap of 435. As the US population grows, our Congress will get gradually less and less representative if this isn’t fixed. To me, that is a major problem.
What are you talking about Don Lake. You do not understand apperently what this bill does as it doesnt do a thing like you are suggesting.
Personally I think giving DC back to Maryland would be a much better solution than this bill.
No–Maryland doesn’t want D.C. The counties adjoining D.C. are very wealthy, and they would have to pay the District’s higher taxes. At least that’s what I read in a book called “THESE UNITED STATES.”
Actually, the question of its constitutionality isn’t entirely clear. The Constitution gives the Congress sweeping power in all matters related to DC.
The Congress shall have Power…
“To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States”
That’s pretty expansive power. It can be argued that that gives them the power to do whatever with it that it wants.
I assume this bill would expand the congress to 437, allocating one seat to DC and the second to whichever state should get it, based on the census — which at this point happens to be Utah, yes?
I couldn’t imagine it being any other way …
There was a period of time that the District of Columbia had a voting member of Congress. Walter Fauntroy was the first and the current incumbent Eleanor Holmes Norton was the last. The degree of ability to vote varied from voting in Committee to full voting rights.
In 1994, when the Republicans took over control of Congress, they stripped D.C. of its voting rights and gave an additional seat to Texas. The addition of Utah is because the Republicans have been whining and threatening to filibuster so they were guaranteed a seat to overcome the deficiency that is percieved.
In addition, D.C. was NEVER part of Maryland. Its a Federal City and that was the intention since the founding of this nation. It never was meant to be part of another state because it holds the nation’s capitol and therefore is its own governing entity.
Whether this legislation is legal is up to judicial interpretation of the constitution as written presently, since the Constitution gives Congress powers over the District. Whether granting congressional voting power by statute is one of them will be resolved by the fact this bill expediates the process to bring it before the Supreme Court to decide. All in all, personally I wonder why DC residents and residents of U.S. territories still have not been granted a voting member (not just in committee) in the House and Senate. Full representation or none.
Also, in response to Kyle, DC retrocession to Maryland or Virginia have both been non-starters unfortuntly, for both sides for a while. Whether they want to go back to the table so to speak about it is up to them. There was also the idea of DC voting with the Maryland delegation for Federal races, stopping short of retrocession. Don’t know how far this idea went though. However, DC has made it pretty clear they want statehood. I think if Wyoming can do it with their population, so can DC. Although again, we ought to question the whole representation premise in the first place so all citizen regardless where they live, will have voting power in the Congress for decisions that affect them too.