[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 1010]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



               EDITORIAL BY FORMER SENATOR CHARLES PERCY

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 30, 2001

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, former Senator Charles Percy, who lives in 
Georgetown here in the District of Columbia, is well remembered in the 
country, and especially here in the District and in Illinois, for very 
distinguished service in the U.S. Senate during three terms. Senator 
Percy has resided in Washington, DC, since leaving the Senate. He has 
served this city as a resident in ways that have made an important 
difference to his Georgetown community and to the city itself. Senator 
Percy has also supported the city as an advocate of congressional 
voting rights and local self government. He has given outstanding 
personal service and countless hours of energy and wisdom to his 
community and has secured funding for his community from Congress. Some 
of the details of his service are cited in an the op ed article by 
Senator Percy that appeared in the Washington Times on Sunday, January 
7, 2001.
  The occasion for this Washington Times article arose at a time when I 
was seeking the return of the vote of D.C. residents in the Committee 
of the Whole. Senator Percy called my office and offered to write an op 
ed article in support of D.C. voting rights. We are pleased and honored 
to have the support of a distinguished former Senator of the United 
States. It give me great pleasure to submit Senator Percy's op ed 
article as it appeared in the Washington Times to the Congressional 
Record.

               [From the Washington Times, Jan. 7, 2001]

            D.C. Residents Deserve a Whole Committee Hearing

       On January 20th, I will be proud to see an outstanding man 
     and leader of the Republican party occupy the White House as 
     President of the United States. On January 20th, my party 
     will begin the first year, since 1965, almost half a century, 
     with a Republican majority in both houses and a Republican 
     President, but with the pledge from our leadership that 
     issues will be dealt with in a Bipartisan way. This is an 
     opportunity for the new Republican government to pay its 
     respects to hometown Washington, D.C. The House is now 
     writing its rules for the 107th Congress. One of those rules 
     should restore the vote in the Committee of the Whole on the 
     House floor to the taxpaying residents of the District of 
     Columbia. As of 1998, the District population was 523,000 
     which is larger than the population of Wyoming (481,000) and 
     close to that of Alaska (614,000), North Dakota (638,000), 
     and Vermont (591,000), each of whom have votes in the House 
     of Representatives and two votes in the Senate. We're asking 
     for a vote in the house not the Senate.
       Why should a man who served Illinois in the U.S. Senate for 
     18 years care deeply about Congressional voting rights for 
     D.C. residents? Living here for 33 years and loving it has a 
     lot to do with it.
       My wife Loraine and I have lived in Georgetown since 
     January 1967 and pay our federal and D.C. taxes like our 
     neighbors and fellow citizens. Nine of our ten grandchildren 
     and one great grandchild live in the D.C. area. While in the 
     U.S. Senate I was elected The Founding Vice Chairman of The 
     Kennedy Center with my across the street neighbor in 
     Georgetown, the gifted Roger L. Stevens serving as Founding 
     Chairman. We stared with a vacant lot overlooking the Potomac 
     river and created, with wonderful help, one of the greatest 
     centers for performing arts in the world.
       Now I am proud to serve in a volunteer capacity as Founding 
     Chairman of The Georgetown Waterfront Park Commission. This 
     is what General Colin Powell, now designated as our new 
     Secretary of State in the George W. Bush administration said 
     in a letter to me:

       Dear Chuck: Congratulations to you for accepting the 
     chairmanship of the Georgetown Waterfront Park Commission. I 
     am confident that under your leadership and with the help of 
     your colleagues and partners, you will bring about a 
     restoration of the Georgetown Waterfront that removes an 
     eyesore and adds a place of beauty to the nation's capitol.
       Best of luck,
           Sincerely,
                                                            Colin.
       I have shared the problems and successes of this great 
     city, and I have shared the anguish of the Americans who live 
     here, who cannot accept disenfranchisement in the Congress 
     simply because they happened to live in the capitol of their 
     country.
       I was among the two-thirds of the Senate who voted for the 
     Voting Rights Amendment to give the District full 
     congressional voting rights in 1978. Unfortunately, the 
     amendment did not receive the required three quarters of the 
     state legislatures.
       However, when the district's delegate to Congress, Eleanor 
     Holmes Norton, submitted a legal memorandum in 1993, the 
     House
       In 1994, some Republicans disagreed when the Democratic 
     House voted to allow all five delegates to vote. However, the 
     District was not considered separately, and many Republicans 
     believed then and believe now that D.C. residents are in a 
     unique position, as District residents are the only Americans 
     who pay federal income taxes but have no congressional voting 
     representation to give them a say in how their taxes are 
     used. Today, only the District is seeking the return of its 
     vote in the 107th Congress and future congresses.
       Immense credit is due to Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), Chair of 
     the D.C. Subcommittee, and its Vice-Chair, Rep. Connie 
     Morella (R-Md.), who have both testified before the House 
     Rules Committee in favor of D.C.'s vote in the Committee of 
     the Whole.
       At the House Rules Committee hearing in September 2000, 
     Rep. Davis said: ``The District of Columbia's citizens pay 
     federal taxes . . . it is the capitol of democracy. They 
     operate in every other way like recognized that it could 
     grant the District voting rights in the Committee of the 
     Whole, where most business on the House floor is conducted, 
     and the courts later agreed. The District had long voted in 
     committees, and the logic for the vote in the Committee of 
     the Whole is compelling. Notwithstanding some limitation, the 
     vote was almost always the equivalent of every House member's 
     vote. Most important, it gave D.C. residents the opportunity 
     to have an elected member of Congress register their views on 
     the House floor, or if the representative voted contrary to 
     their views, to respond as well. After 200 years, at least in 
     the House, D.C. residents were on their way. They now have a 
     vote in committees most of the time in exchange for the taxes 
     they pay every other citizen in any district, and they ought 
     to have the vote on the floor of the House. We have the 
     opportunity as Republicans to step up and do the right thing 
     . . .'' Rep. Morella agreed and testified ``why I feel very 
     strongly that as we put together the . . . rules . . . that 
     we do give . . . voting right in the Committee of the Whole 
     to the delegate from our Nation's Capitol.''
       I join Representatives Davis, Morella and other Republicans 
     in asking the Congressional leadership and members, to ``do 
     the right thing'' for taxpaying D.C. residents. And I join 
     Mayor Williams, the City Council, religious leaders and D.C. 
     residents who are actively seeking the return of the vote in 
     the Committee of the Whole on the House floor when the House 
     returns in January 2001, and also complete its financial 
     assistance that is greatly needed by the Georgetown 
     Waterfront Park Commission, and National Park Foundation and 
     I also hope will have the support of our Washington, D.C. 
     area media including D.C. voting rights.

     

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