WASHINGTON, D.C. (NNPA) — Incoming U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pledged her support for granting limited voting rights to Washington, D.C., Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton.
Pelosi, a California Democrat who represents portions of San Francisco, said House Democrats plan to change the House rules to allow Norton a limited vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole House starting next year.
That would give District residents voting representation in Congress for the first time since1995, when Republican lawmakers won a majority of House seats and stripped the vote from the nation’s capital.
In the Nov. 7 elections, Democrats picked up 29 seats in the House and six seats in the Senate, giving them control of Congress and the ability to set the legislative agenda and change the rules.
The White House is also considering the issue of voting rights for D.C. residents.
In response to questioning by reporters on Nov. 8, President Bush said he would review the District of Columbia Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act of 2006, a bipartisan bill that passed the House Government Reform Committee in May by a vote of 29-4.
Bush said he didn’t know much about the bill or whether it would pass Congress during the lame duck session, which will last through mid-December.
The measure was offered by Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., and cosponsored by Norton and Pelosi. It would grant full voting rights to Norton in exchange for adding an additional Congressional seat to the state of Utah.
The bill would require the newly elected Utah state legislature to approve the new Congressional seat, but so far, state lawmakers have not taken action. As a result, the D.C. voting bill is in limbo.
“’There is something fundamentally wrong with placing 600,000 taxpaying Americans on the sidelines of democracy, and it’s gratifying to know that President Bush is looking at legislation that would correct this injustice,” said Ilir Zherka, executive director of DC Vote.
DC Vote is a nonprofit educational and advocacy organization dedicated to securing full voting representation in Congress for D.C. residents.
Jennifer Crider, a spokesman for Pelosi, said the House would change the rules to grant Norton the limited voting rights on the House floor. The next step would be to pass the Davis bill, although the fate of the measure is not certain yet, she said.