[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 26, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S604-S605]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LIEBERMAN (for himself, Mr. Feingold, Mr. Durbin, Mr. 
        Dodd, Mr. Dayton, Mr. Corzine, Mr. Sarbanes, Mr. Obama, Ms. 
        Mikulski, and Mr. Schumer):
  S. 195. 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 Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the No 
Taxation Without Representation Act of 2005 in an effort to right a 
persistent injustice experienced by the 600,000 citizens of the 
District of Columbia, who have historically been denied voting 
representation in Congress.
  This injustice is felt directly by District residents, but it is also 
a shadow overhanging the democratic traditions of our Nation as a 
whole. It is absurd that, in this day and age, ours is the only 
democracy in the world in which citizens of the capital city are not 
represented in the national legislature with a vote. The right to vote 
is a civic entitlement of every American citizen, no matter where he or 
she resides. It is democracy's most essential right.
  I am proud to be the chief Senate sponsor of this bill, which 
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton is introducing today in the House, 
because it makes us the fully representative democracy we claim to be. 
And I am delighted that Senators Obama, Schumer, Mikulski, Sarbanes, 
Feingold, Dayton, Corzine, Dodd and Durbin are joining me as original 
co-sponsors. The point of the legislation is simple: It would provide 
the residents of the District with full voting representation by two 
Senators and a House Member, guaranteeing the residents of the Nation's 
capital with the same right to partake in our democracy that the 
citizens of all 50 States enjoy. Despite this bill's title, it would 
not exempt residents of the District from paying taxes.
  In May 2002, the Governmental Affairs Committee, which I then 
chaired, held the first hearing since 1994 on this issue. Five months 
later, in October, the committee reported out legislation similar to 
the bill we introduce today. I was and am still proud of that 
accomplishment. Unfortunately, it was not enough. The bill died on the 
Senate floor, and with it, the hope of D.C. residents for equal voting 
rights.
  The people of this city literally fight and die for their country. 
They help pay for the benefits to which all Americans are entitled. And 
yet, they are denied voting representation.
  It is painfully ironic that we are introducing this legislation even 
as the young men and women, including many from the District of 
Columbia, are dying in Iraq so that Iraqis may live and vote in a 
representative democracy. About 1,000 Army and Air National Guardsmen 
and women from the District have been called upon to help fight the war 
on terrorism. Three have died in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. Yet, to 
our shame, these brave men and women cannot choose representatives to 
the Federal legislature that governs them and thus have no say in when 
or whether the nation should go to war.
  The people of this city, more than most, live under the near constant 
threat of terrorism, and have been mightily inconvenienced by security 
precautions because of that threat. And despite Congresswoman Norton's 
ability to vote in committee, residents of D.C. have no one who can 
vote when homeland and national security policies are being crafted. A 
representative without the power to vote on the floor of the House 
simply isn't a real representative.
  Furthermore, the citizens of Washington, D.C., pay income taxes just 
like everyone else. Only, they pay more. Per capita, District residents 
have the third highest Federal tax obligation. And yet they have no 
voice in how high those taxes will be nor how they will be spent.
  The vast majority of Americans believe that D.C. residents have 
voting representation in the Congress. When informed that they don't, 
82 percent of Americans, according to one poll, by the advocacy group 
D.C. Vote, say that they should.
  In righting this wrong, we won't only be following the will of the 
American people. We will be following the imperative of our history. 
When they placed our Capital, which was not yet established in their 
day, under the jurisdiction of the Congress, the Framers of our 
Constitution in effect placed with Congress the solemn responsibility 
of assuring that the rights of D.C. citizens would be protected in the 
future, just as it is our responsibility to protect the rights of all 
citizens throughout this great country. Congress has failed to meet 
this obligation for more than 200 years, 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, 
``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 be amended, but not 
suffered to be trampled upon whilst it has an existence.''
  The people of D.C. have suffered from this Constitutional defect for 
far too long. Let's reprehend it and amend it together. I urge all of 
my colleagues to support this essential legislation.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                 S. 195

       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 2005''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       Congress finds the following:
       (1) The residents of the District of Columbia are the only 
     Americans who pay Federal income taxes and who have fought 
     and died in every American war 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 third 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.

[[Page S605]]

     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 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. The Senators and 
     Representative elected 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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