The DC Voting Rights Act of 2009 passed the Senate in amended form on February 26, 2009. It’s up for a vote in the House this week according to a statement by House Majority Leader Stacy Hoyer. The bill turns Washington DC into a Congressional district and provides it with a voting member in the House of Representatives. The bill also provides an additional Congressional district in a largely conservative area of Utah. Both seats would be elected in the fall and sworn for the 112th Congress. Utah would retain its seat until after the first reapportionment of House seats following the 2010 Census.
The bill was amended to take away the DC Council’s right to regulate firearms in the District of Columbia. Otherwise, S 160 introduced by Senators Lieberman and Hatch on January 6th, 2009 is identical to H.R. 1905 that passed in the House in April 2007. The bill was killed in the Senate in September 2007 by a Republican filibuster despite a Senate majority willing to vote on the legislation.
The District of Columbia’s non-voting Delegate to Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced the DC Voting Rights Act to the House of Representatives as H.R. 157 on January 6th, 2009. She predicts swift passage of the bill.
If the bill passes in a House vote this week it would be a definite victory for DC rights activists who’ve been working against. Nevertheless, many questions remain. Is the DC Voting Rights Act is constitutional? Desirable? More on both later.