[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 42 (Monday, March 12, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E517-E518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 D.C. HOUSE VOTING RIGHTS BILL OF 2007

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 12, 2007

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, the bipartisan bill we introduce today is 
a culmination of four years of during which Democrats and Republicans 
have worked together to accomplish a common goal for Utah and the 
District of Columbia. This effort has been worth every minute, as we 
are poised to clear the high hurdle to equal citizenship in the 
People's House--the House of Representatives. Representative Tom Davis 
(R-VA) and I have worked together on many tough bills and have gotten a 
fair number passed. Still, the bill we introduce today has surely been 
the toughest, has required the most work for us both, and has taken the 
most time. I am most grateful to Representative Davis who found the 
balance that makes this bill possible, modeled most recently on Alaska 
and Hawaii, both admitted to the Union in 1959 after Congress assured 
itself that their entry would benefit both parties. Tom Davis did not 
stop with his good idea but has worked relentlessly to reach this 
milestone. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has long fought for the rights of D.C. 
residents. It was she who personally insisted that this legislation go 
forward without delay as a bill of historic importance. Majority Leader 
Steny Hoyer, my regional friend for years, has been an especially 
outspoken champion of this bill. Throughout this process Chairman Henry 
Waxman (D-CA) has been a central figure, making every possible effort 
to ensure we would reach this day. From the very beginning, Chairman 
John Conyers (D-MI) as a founding member of the Congressional Black 
Caucus and a member of the Judiciary Committee has fought for our full 
rights throughout his years in Congress, pressing all along until as 
chair he will now preside over the committee that will send this bill 
to the floor. Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. and the entire Utah delegation 
have been steadfast and determined throughout.
  Tom and I have understood that the essential metric required bringing 
both parties with us, not only bipartisanship in the usual sense but 
equivalence, that is no partisan gain and no partisan disadvantage. We 
have gone through many variations, beginning with Tom's original 
proposal, where the D.C. House seat would have included some Maryland 
residents. Tom then accepted our notion that a D.C. stand-alone seat 
would be best and less controversial all around, and the talks and 
proposals proceeded. We since have tried several scenarios for moving 
the bill. I continued to keep my bill, the No Taxation Without 
Representation Act for the full representation that will never abandon 
until a bill agreeable to all could be fashioned.
  The District of Columbia has waited 200 years to gain the equal 
citizenship rights they deserve and seek. The framers were clear that 
American citizens are entitled to equal representation in the House. 
Our status as second in the United States in federal income taxes that 
support our government argues indisputably for equivalent rights. 
However, in this time of war with residents serving in Iraq and 
Afghanistan, our bill for congressional voting rights for D.C. 
residents must and I believe will not be denied.
  Finally, I hope I can be forgiven a personal moment. Throughout this 
process, I have never referred to the District's vote as my vote or 
what the vote would mean to me personally because it will not belong to 
me. I have never mentioned the special reason I personally wanted to be 
the first to cast that vote because this bill is for D.C. residents now 
and in the future, not for me. However, my 16 years in Congress has 
been defined by the search for some way to get full representation for 
the city where my family has lived since before the Civil War. That 
search has included the two-day debate followed by a vote on statehood 
more than 10 years ago, and the vote I won in the Committee of the 
Whole. The struggle has been driven by its own terms, by the here and 
now. Yet, I cannot deny the personal side of this quest, epitomized by 
my family of native Washingtonians, my father Coleman Holmes, my 
grandfather, Richard Holmes, who entered the D.C. Fire Department in 
1902 and whose picture hangs in my office, a gift from the D.C. Fire 
Department, but especially my great-grandfather, Richard Holmes, a 
slave who walked off a Virginia plantation in the 1850s, made it to 
Washington, and settled our family here. By definition, subliminal 
motivation is unknown and unfelt. However, when Tom and I knew that we 
had reached the best agreement we could, I thought openly of my family. 
I thought especially of the man I never knew. I thought of Richard 
Holmes, a slave in the District until Lincoln freed the slaves here 
nine months before the Emancipation Proclamation. I thought of my great 
grandfather who came here in a furtive search for freedom itself, not 
the vote on the House floor. I thought of what a man who lived as a 
slave in the District, and others like him would think if his great-
granddaughter becomes the first to cast the first full vote for the 
District of Columbia on the House floor. I hope to have the special 
honor of casting the vote I have sought for 16 years. I want to cast 
that vote for the residents of this city whom I have had the great 
privilege of representing and who have fought and have waited for so 
long. Yes, and I want to cast that vote in memory of my great-
grandfather, Richard Holmes.

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