House approves voting rep for Washington DC
By Thomas Ferraro Thu Apr 19, 8:16 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The capital of the United States would get its first full representative in the U.S. Congress under a bill approved on Thursday in defiance of a White House veto threat.
The Democratic-led House of Representatives voted 241-177 to expand its chamber and provide a representative for the District of Columbia, a city commonly referred to as Washington in honor of America's first president.
Mayor Andrian Fenty called the action "a great and historic day for the residents of the District of Columbia" and urged the Senate to give its needed concurrence.
"The United States is the only representative democracy that does not afford the citizens of its capital voting representation -- making this not only a national disgrace, but an international embarrassment," said House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record) of Maryland.
"We are fighting to ensure that the citizens of Baghdad have a full vote in a democratic system, while we are denying this same right to U.S. citizens," Hoyer said.
Foes charge that giving the District, capital of the United States for more than 200 years, a representative would violate the U.S. Constitution, which declares that House lawmakers be elected exclusively by the states.
"D.C. is not a state and the Constitution clearly limits representation in the House to states," said Rep. Lamar Smith (news, bio, voting record) of Texas, ranking Republican on the
House Judiciary Committee.
Accordingly, the White House has said if the bill was sent to Republican
President George W. Bush, he would veto it.
But backers argue the Constitution, adopted in 1789 as the nation's legal framework, provides Congress broad powers to regulate the district -- enough to give it a representative.
"This problem should be solved," said Republican Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, who broke party ranks to co-sponsor the bill. "It's an outrage this situation has persisted for 200 years."
In an effort to attract bipartisan support, the measure seeks to provide a political balance. It would increase the House to 437 from 435 members, giving one new representative to the traditionally Democratic District and the other to the Republican-leaning state of Utah.
District residents pay federal taxes, prompting many to have on their car license plates the protest words: "Taxation without representation," reminiscent of the battle cry of American colonists when they won independence from Great Britain in 1776 and went on to create the United States.
It took until 1961 for District residents to win the right to vote in U.S. presidential elections. Since 1970, they have had a House delegate who can vote on legislation in committee, but not in the full House.
(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan)