Horse Trade in U.S. Congress May Give Washington Its First Vote
By Alison Fitzgerald
Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Washington finally may get a say in what goes on inside the U.S. Capitol after two centuries as home to the building.
The District of Columbia would gain a member of Congress with full voting rights under legislation endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that may come to the floor for debate next month.
Lawmakers broke an impasse over whether to grant a vote in Congress to the heavily Democratic city by proposing an additional seat for reliably Republican Utah. The legislation would cap decades of efforts to give citizens of the U.S. capital a bigger voice in federal government decisions.
"Nearly everyone agrees there's something wrong when the world's greatest democracy doesn't have democracy for the capital," said Walter Smith, a former city attorney who led a failed attempt to get a vote in Congress a decade ago.
Washington was established in 1790 when the federal government carved out sections of Maryland and Virginia for a national capital. Residents lost their right to vote for president and Congress under an 1801 law that established the District government.
While Washington has a mayor and city council, Congress reviews local legislation and oversees the budget. Residents didn't even win back the right to vote for president until the 23rd amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1961. A non- voting delegate to Congress was added in 1970.
Yet even in a city whose license plates protest "Taxation Without Representation," not everyone agrees that the legislation is a good idea or would even be constitutional.
'Of the States'
Article 1 of the Constitution calls for the House of Representatives to consist of members chosen "by the people of the several states." That may disqualify the 550,000 people of the District of Columbia, even though they pay more per capita in total federal taxes than residents of every state except Connecticut.
One risk to Democrats is that Utah might get to keep an extra House seat even if a court rejected giving Washington a vote.
"The bill is flagrantly unconstitutional," said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University.
Some scholars say the only ways Washington can legally obtain the vote are through a constitutional amendment or becoming part of Maryland.
Supporters of the legislation disagree, saying Congress has the authority to grant Washington a voting representative.
"In a number of areas, the courts have construed the word `state' to include the district," said Adam Charnes, a lawyer with Kilpatrick Stockton LLP who co-wrote an opinion on the proposal's constitutionality for a House panel. "The Constitution gives Congress such wide authority in managing the district."
Long Enough
Many Washington residents say they have waited long enough.
"It matters when issues of great importance to your city or state come up in Congress," said Eleanor Holmes Norton, 69, who has been the district's delegate to Congress since 1991. "We are a terror target, and I can't vote on homeland-security legislation."
The legislation before the Democratic-controlled Congress would boost the number of U.S. representatives to 437 from 435. Washington wouldn't get the two Senate seats each state has, and that further inflames some voting-rights advocates.
"It's really just one-third of a vote, which makes us one- third residents," said Timothy Cooper, head of Worldrights, who has pressed his case for Washington statehood all the way to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, expects to bring the legislation to the floor next month, spokeswoman Stacey Bernards said. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, also backs voting rights for Washington.
Republican Supporter
President George W. Bush is studying the measure, spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said. The compromise was worked out by a Republican, Representative Tom Davis of Virginia.
Utah was open to the deal because in the 2000 Census the state fell 857 people shy of the population required to get its fourth House seat. State officials complained that the Census Bureau failed to count thousands of Mormon missionaries posted overseas, a claim rejected by the Supreme Court.
The new spirit of compromise is a far cry from the last time the city made a big push for a vote.
When former city attorney Smith filed a federal lawsuit in 1998 for voting rights, a hostile Republican Congress tried to thwart the effort by making it illegal to use government money to pursue the case, he said.
Hostile Congress
Smith was undeterred: He took all his vacation time to prepare the suit, working in borrowed offices "so we would not even use the city's electricity."
In 2000, he biked across the country to drum up support. That year, a federal court rejected the case, and the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.
The city responded by putting the "Taxation Without Representation" slogan on license plates. President Bill Clinton installed the plates on the presidential limousines during his last month in office. Bush removed them as soon as he took over.
"It's 200 years late," Smith said of the possibility that the city will get the vote. "But better late than never."