[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 73 (Tuesday, June 9, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1074-E1075]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      DEMOCRACY TRANSITION PACKAGE

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 9, 1998

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I introduce the third bill in my 
Democracy Transition Package, a resolution that would return the 
District's limited right to vote on the House floor in the Committee of 
the Whole to the rules package for the 106th Congress. I ask Congress 
to return the delegate vote that I won in the 103rd Congress out of 
respect for the more than half million taxpaying residents whom I 
represent. This vote was withdrawn from all five delegates in the 104th 
Congress, but, as I will indicate, I do not believe the withdrawal was 
an act focused on the District and its unique circumstances as the home 
of the only taxpaying residents without full congressional 
representation. The repeal was wrapped in a package of rules, and the 
District was never considered individually. On behalf of my 
constituents, to whom the vote is deeply meaningful, I ask my 
colleagues to support this important measure.
  Without disparaging the rights of the other delegates to seek the 
return of their votes, I base my request on the unique responsibilities 
and equities particular to the District of Columbia. I supported the 
rationale of the decision that gave all the delegates the vote in the 
Committee of the Whole, namely that, historically, delegates have been 
accorded the same treatment. At the same time, there are important 
differences between the District and the territories, most notably, 
that the District is subject to federal income taxes.
  The unique circumstances and equities that argue for a vote for the 
District can be embodied in four principles.
  Principle No. 1--I represent the only Americans who pay federal 
income taxes but have no vote on the House floor; my constituents pay 
$1.7 billion annually in federal income taxes, making them third per 
capita among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The District 
is the only territory under the jurisdiction of the United States whose 
citizens are subject to every obligation of citizenship, notably 
federal taxation, but remain barred from sending a voting 
representative to the House and Senate. Unlike the delegate from the 
District, the delegates from American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the 
Virgin Islands do not represent citizens who pay federal income taxes. 
Yet, fortunately, they enjoy full self-government and the District does 
not, and they are afforded the same representation in Congress as the 
District.
  Principle No. 2--I represent the only Americans whose budget 
governing the expenditure of their own locally raised tax dollars must 
be enacted by the Congress. The passage of the President's 
Revitalization package ensures that nearly all of the District's local 
budget will now be D.C. taxpayer-raised revenues. As the first measure 
in my Democracy Transition package and with the support of the 
President, I introduced a bill that would eliminate the D.C. 
Appropriations subcommittees in the Congress to reflect this important 
change.
  Principle No. 3--I represent the only Americans who do not enjoy full 
democratic self-government. The four territories, like the states and 
localities, are self governing under accepted principles of democracy 
without interference from the Congress. Under the Home Rule Act of 
1973, the Congress reserves and exercises the right to revoke and 
change the laws and budget of the District consisting of locally raised 
revenues. As the second measure in my Democracy Transition package, I 
introduced a bill that would allow the District to enact its own laws 
free of Congressional approval.
  Principle No. 4--I represent more than a half million residents, a 
population more than some Congressional districts.
  The District Court of the District of Columbia and the Court of 
Appeals for this circuit have ruled that there is no constitutional 
impediment to extending voting rights to delegates in the House to the 
Committee of the Whole. Article I, Section 5, Clause 2 which states 
that, ``Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings'' is the 
constitutional basis for this ruling. Had the case gone against the 
House, an extraordinary precedent for intrusion by the courts into the 
Rules and proceedings of this body that no one in the House desires 
would have resulted.
  The House granted a limited right to delegates to vote in the 
Committee of the Whole on the basis of a legal memorandum that I 
prepared that was factually grounded in the District's taxpaying 
status. The other territories were granted the vote at the same time to 
avoid differential treatment, although, of course, taxpaying status 
legitimately sets the District apart from the residents of the 
territories, who do not pay federal income taxes to the federal 
treasury. Subsequently, the courts approved delegate voting as granted 
by the Rules of the House, removing any legal or constitutional 
question.
  My vote in the Committee of the Whole still left taxpaying District 
citizens without a vote in the formal House and without any vote in the 
Senate. To avoid any constitutional question, a re-vote requirement 
provided that a delegate's vote would never decide an issue before the 
Committee of the Whole if the delegate's vote provided the deciding 
margin.
  the work of the Committee of the Whole is no more final than that of 
standing committees, such as Transportation and Infrastructure and 
Judiciary, where Delegates have long had the vote. Therefore, nothing 
done in the Committee of the Whole is final until the full House acts. 
My constituents do no assert that they yet meet the constitutional 
requirements for full voting membership in the House, inasmuch as the 
District is not a state. What my constituents do meet each and every 
day is each and every obligation of citizenship, including paying every 
federal tax paid by other American citizens, serving in the armed 
forces, and being subject to all obligations required by the nation's 
laws. District residents have fought and died in every war since the 
American Revolution and sent more citizens to fight the nation's most 
recent war, Operation Desert Storm, than did 47 states.
  Most Americans today would almost surely agree that citizens who are 
third per capita in federal income taxes should have the right to vote 
in the Committee of the Whole if that is constitutionally permissible. 
Denying me my vote in the Committee of the Whole punishes hard working 
taxpaying Americans. The House gains by adherence to its often 
expressed democratic principles while losing nothing if my vote is 
returned. It would mean a great deal to the people I represent at this 
critical time in the life of the nation's capital. Disempowering me 
cannot help in my work to help dispel the District's current problems.
  A vote in the Committee of the Whole would give District residents a 
vote on most matters--several steps up from being a representative 
confined to debating while other Members vote on her local laws and her 
local taxpayer raised budget and revenues. In a body that justifiably 
gives great deference to taxpaying Americans, allowing a vote to a 
jurisdiction that ranks higher in federal income taxes than almost all 
others is a matter of simple justice.
  The unique taxpaying status of my constituents, the unique privilege 
this body assumes of appropriating locally raised taxpayer revenue, the 
unique requirement to bring each and every action taken to the local 
city council to a body in which residents have no voting 
representation, and the significant population of the District makes 
the District's case unique. The vote in the Committee of the Whole 
should be granted to the District, considering the principle that 
produced the nation itself: no taxation without representation. Under 
these circumstances, the House should do all that is constitutionally 
permissible. I ask my colleagues to restore my limited voting rights in 
the House and afford the respect that the residents of the nation's 
capital are due.

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