[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 128 (Thursday, October 3, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9909-S9911]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LIEBERMAN (for himself, Mr. Feingold, Mr. Durbin, Mr. 
        Kennedy, Mr. Jeffords, and Mr. Schumer):
  S. 3054. A bill to provide for full voting representation in Congress 
for the citizens of the District of Columbia, and for other purposes; 
to the Committee on Governmental Affairs.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise today to join with my colleagues 
Senators Russ Feingold, Dick Durbin, Edward Kennedy, Jim Jeffords, and 
Charles Schumer in introducing legislation that would end a terrible 
injustice suffered by 600,000 American citizens--that is, the denial of 
full Congressional representation to the citizens of the District of 
Columbia. This injustice is nothing less than a stain on the fabric of 
our democracy. To right this wrong, we are introducing the No Taxation 
Without Representation Act of 2002 today in order to extend full 
Congressional representation to the citizens of our Capital City.
  This is the second bill I have introduced to this Congress in order 
to achieve this important goal. It is embarrassing that ours is the 
only democracy in the world in which citizens of the Capital are not 
represented in the national legislature. I can only wonder what 
visitors from around the world must think when they come to see our 
beautiful landmarks, our monuments, and our Capitol dome, proud symbols 
of the world's greatest democracy, and then learn that the people who 
live in this great city have no voice in Congress. What would we do if, 
for some reason, the residents of Boston, Nashville, Denver, Seattle, 
or El Paso had no voting rights? All those cities are roughly the same 
size as Washington, D.C., and I know we as a Nation wouldn't let their 
citizens go voiceless in Congress.
  Citizens of Washington, D.C. pay income taxes, and yet they have no 
say in how high those taxes will be or how their tax dollars will be 
spent. Citizens of Washington, D.C. serve their fellow Americans both 
here at home and in wars abroad, and yet inhabitants of the District of 
Columbia cannot choose representatives to the legislature that governs 
them. This city's people and institutions have been the direct target 
of terrorists, and yet citizens of the District have no one who can 
cast a vote in Congress on policies to protect their homeland security.
  The vote is a civic entitlement of every tax-paying citizen of the 
United States. It is democracy's most elemental and essential right, 
its most useful tool. The citizens who live in our Nation's capital 
deserve more than a non-voting delegate in the House. Notwithstanding 
the strong service of the Honorable Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton 
and her ability to vote in committee, a representative without the 
power to vote on the floor of the House simply isn't good enough.
  The name of this bill is intended as a reminder of the inextricable 
link in this Nation's history between the power to tax and the right to 
vote. Our forebearers went to war rather than pay taxes without 
representation. The principles for which our Nation's revolutionary 
heroes fought so hard more than 200 years ago apply just as forcefully 
to the citizens of the District of Columbia today as they did for the 
men and women who founded this great Nation.
  Despite its title, ``No Taxation Without Representation,'' this bill 
does not relieve the District residents of their tax obligations, given 
their non-voting status. The people of D.C. are not looking to avoid 
paying their fair share of taxes. Instead, the bill grants the citizens 
of the District of the Columbia their much-belated birthright: the 
right to vote for and be represented by two Senators and a full Member 
of the House of Representatives. Further the bill increases the 
permanent membership of the House of Representatives by one, a symbolic 
acknowledgment that all along a member was missing: the Representative 
casting her vote for the people of Washington, D.C.
  This legislation is no less than our broadly-held American values 
demand for our fellow citizens. In fact, a recent national poll shows 
that a majority of Americans believe D.C. residents already have 
Congressional voting rights. When informed that they do not, 80 percent 
say that D.C. residents should have full representation.
  In righting this wrong, we won't just be following the will of the 
American people. We will be following the will of history. When the 
framers of the Constitution placed our Capital, which had not yet been 
established, under the jurisdiction of the Congress, they placed with 
Congress the responsibility of ensuring that D.C. citizens' rights 
would be protected in the future, just as Congress protects the rights 
of all citizens throughout the land. For more than 200 years, Congress 
has failed to meet this obligation. And I, for one, am not prepared to 
make D.C. citizens wait another 200 years.
  In the words of this city's namesake, our first President, George 
Washington, ``Precedents are dangerous things; let the reins of 
government then be braced and held with a steady hand, and every 
violation of the Constitution be reprehended: If defective, let it 
amended, but not suffered to be trampled upon whilst it has an 
existence.''
  The people of the District of Columbia have suffered this 
Constitutional defect far too long. Let's reprehend it and amend it 
together.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the No Taxation Without 
Representation Act of 2002 be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 3054

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``No Taxation Without 
     Representation Act of 2002''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       Congress finds the following:
       (1) The residents of the District of Columbia are the only 
     Americans who pay Federal income taxes but are denied voting 
     representation in the House of Representatives and the 
     Senate.
       (2) The residents of the District of Columbia suffer the 
     very injustice against which our Founding Fathers fought, 
     because they do not have voting representation as other 
     taxpaying Americans do and are nevertheless required to pay 
     Federal income taxes unlike the Americans who live in the 
     territories.
       (3) The principle of one person, one vote requires that 
     residents of the District of Columbia are afforded full 
     voting representation in the House and the Senate.
       (4) Despite the denial of voting representation, Americans 
     in the Nation's Capital are second among residents of all 
     States in per capita income taxes paid to the Federal 
     Government.
       (5) Unequal voting representation in our representative 
     democracy is inconsistent with the founding principles of the 
     Nation and the strongly held principles of the American 
     people today.

     SEC. 3. REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS FOR DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

       For the purposes of congressional representation, the 
     District of Columbia, constituting the seat of government of 
     the United States, shall be treated as a State, such that its 
     residents shall be entitled to elect and be represented by 2 
     Senators in the United States Senate, and as many 
     Representatives in the House of Representatives as a 
     similarly populous State would be entitled to under the law.

     SEC. 4. ELECTIONS.

       (a) First Elections.--
       (1) Proclamation.--Not later than 30 days after the date of 
     enactment of this Act, the Mayor of the District of Columbia 
     shall issue a proclamation for elections to be held to fill 
     the 2 Senate seats and the seat in the House

[[Page S9911]]

     of Representatives to represent the District of Columbia in 
     Congress.
       (2) Manner of elections.--The proclamation of the Mayor of 
     the District of Columbia required by paragraph (1) shall 
     provide for the holding of a primary election and a general 
     election and at such elections the officers to be elected 
     shall be chosen by a popular vote of the residents of the 
     District of Columbia. The manner in which such elections 
     shall be held and the qualification of voters shall be the 
     same as those for local elections, as prescribed by the 
     District of Columbia.
       (3) Classification of senators.--In the first election of 
     Senators from the District of Columbia, the 2 senatorial 
     offices shall be separately identified and designated, and no 
     person may be a candidate for both offices. No such 
     identification or designation of either of the 2 senatorial 
     offices shall refer to or be taken to refer to the terms of 
     such offices, or in any way impair the privilege of the 
     Senate to determine the class to which each of the Senators 
     elected shall be assigned.
       (b) Certification of Election.--The results of an election 
     for the Senators and Representative from the District of 
     Columbia shall be certified by the Mayor of the District of 
     Columbia in the manner required by law and the Senators and 
     Representative shall be entitled to be admitted to seats in 
     Congress and to all the rights and privileges of Senators and 
     Representatives of the States in the Congress of the United 
     States.

     SEC. 5. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MEMBERSHIP.

       (a) In General.--Upon the date of enactment of this Act, 
     the District of Columbia shall be entitled to 1 
     Representative until the taking effect of the next 
     reapportionment. Such Representative shall be in addition to 
     the membership of the House of Representatives as now 
     prescribed by law.
       (b) Increase in Membership of House of Representatives.--
     Upon the date of enactment of this Act, the permanent 
     membership of the House of Representatives shall increase by 
     1 seat for the purpose of future reapportionment of 
     Representatives.
       (c) Reapportionment.--Upon reapportionment, the District of 
     Columbia shall be entitled to as many seats in the House of 
     Representatives as a similarly populous State would be 
     entitled to under the law.
       (d) District of Columbia Delegate.--Until the first 
     Representative from the District of Columbia is seated in the 
     House of Representatives, the Delegate in Congress from the 
     District of Columbia shall continue to discharge the duties 
     of his or her office.
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