Congressman Dana Rohrbacher introduced HR 665 on January 23. Read the bill by going to http://thomas.loc.gov and inputting the bill number. It provides that for presidential and congressional elections, the District of Columbia should be treated as though it were part of Maryland. It abolishes the office of Delegate to Congress for the District of Columbia, and says that at first, D.C. would be its own U.S. House district, but the election would be run under Maryland election laws. If, in the future, the population of D.C. is greater than the population of an average House district in Maryland, then the greater part of D.C. would be a district, and the excess would be part of a Maryland U.S. House district.
How many New Age MORONS are there in the latest and greatest gerrymander Congress in D.C. (Dumb City) ???
D.C. is NOT a State – 14th Amdt, Sec. 2.
The MORONS can NOT detect the 23rd Amdt ??? — Electoral College Prez Electors in D.C.
And the USA is not a nation, but an empire!
The bill is unconstituional. Under Article 1, Section 8 Congress maintain exclusive legislative control. They can not delegate that authority to Maryland UNLESS Congress is give veto power over Maryland legislation. Congress currently have veto power over D.C.’s laws. Congress can’t have veto power over Maryland laws because of Article IV.
This is the first step to the solution to the DC problem. Good for Dana.
For the 3 posters above who are not familiar with the facts:
The Virginia portion of Washington DC has already been returned to, and is now part of Virginia. No Constitutional, nor any other problems. This would be the same.
We can and should do the same for the Maryland portion of DC, minus a small area maintained as a Federal District, containing the Capitol, the White House and the uninhabited areas containing the major monuments and the mall. Give all the rest back to Maryland.
Finally some common sense about voting in D.C. The only question is how many others will have the same common sense? Probably very few.
#3 Congress had exclusive legislative control over the District of Columbia from the time of its cession by Virginia and Maryland. Nonetheless, residents of the area continued to vote for US representative and presidential electors (Maryland has always chosen its electors by popular vote, as has Virginia, except during the Civil War and Reconstruction). They also indirectly participated in the election of Senators through legislative elections. It was not an conscious act to deny voters the right to vote when the government was moved to Washington.
The federal government has numerous enclaves within the States over which it also has exclusive legislative control under Article 1, Section 8. Nonetheless, residents of these areas do vote in State elections. Under the US Constitution, there is no requirement that this be true, but Congress has permitted it to occur.
Congress has required the States to permit US citizens residing outside the United States or its territories to vote in federal elections of their last residence, and has included some of these persons (and dependents) in apportionment population.
And Congress already has complete veto power over the Maryland laws with respect to the election of representatives and senators.
D.C. is a special enclave NOT in any State — so that the State party hacks would have ZERO control over anything going on in the CAPITAL area of the U.S.A.
A proper amdt –
Uniform definition of Elector in ALL of the U.S.A.
Equal ballot access
P.R. and A.V.
Way too difficult for the armies of New Age political MORONS in the U.S.A. to understand.
Contrary to what many above have suggested, what the Bill does is restore the situation from 1790-1801, when DC residents were considered for electoral purposes as residents of the states which ceded the land to the federal govt; this situation was ended by an Act of Congress, and ergo can be restored by an Act. The Virginia part, Alexandria County, was returned due to the Civil War; this does not go as far as ceding the remainder to MD, but merely to consider the 500,000 residents of DC as MD residents for the purpose of elections.
It does not give MD power over DC, nor the Federal Govt. any more power than it has over MD. It merely rectifies an oversight of Congress in 1801 (when nobody really lived in DC) which disenfranchised those living in DC.