[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 628]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         VOTING RIGHTS FOR CITIZENS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, the denial of voting rights to people in the 
District of Columbia who pay their taxes every day and are fighting in 
Iraq, Afghanistan, and all around the world is finally sparking 
national attention, and even more important, it is sparking bills in 
the Congress. And bills not only from me and my side of the aisle, but 
I am pleased to note from my Republican friends.
  Several Members are considering or have already put in bills to give 
voting rights for the residents of the District of Columbia, and all of 
these are Republican bills and worth noting on this floor. On behalf of 
the people of the District of Columbia, I want to express my 
appreciation for these Members who have come forward with their own 
bills.
  The first national interest comes, of course, from our ``First in the 
Nation'' primary. It was nonbinding, but that did not much matter. 
People came out in double the numbers they came out in the 2000 
Presidential primary. And they came out because the primary was in part 
to cast a personal protest vote against paying taxes without 
representation here in the House, no representation in the Senate 
whatsoever, and yet serving as we have in our Armed Forces since our 
Nation was established, all without representation. Today, we are once 
again disproportionately represented in our Armed Forces in Iraq and 
Afghanistan.
  The bills, however, are not about protest. They are about a remedy. I 
am still gathering signatures, and am grateful to Members who have 
signed on to my No Taxation Without Representation Act, and I will 
continue to do so. Indeed, this bill got out of committee in the Senate 
a couple of years ago, and I certainly have not given up on it. But I 
do want to come to the floor this afternoon to say I welcome bills, 
especially the bills by my Republican friends, and I am very encouraged 
and will continue to work with them until we get a bill that everybody 
can agree upon.
  My own bill, of course, would give representation in the House and 
the Senate for the District of Columbia. The gentleman from Virginia 
(Mr. Tom Davis), Chair of the Committee on Government Reform, which has 
oversight for the District of Columbia, is considering a bill that 
would have a House-only seat.
  The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula) has long favored and often in 
the past put in bills for voting rights. His is a retrocession bill. 
D.C. would return to the State of Maryland, that is to say, if Maryland 
agreed, with Congress maintaining control over the Federal enclave.
  And now the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) has come 
forward with a bill that treats the District, for purposes of voting 
rights only, as Maryland citizens. District residents could vote in 
Maryland, could run for the Maryland Senate seats. We would remain an 
independent jurisdiction and there would be no retrocession.
  The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) has represented that he is 
considering a statehood bill. The problem with that, and I appreciate 
his interest, is that we had a vote on statehood in 1993, but the 
District had a grave financial problem and had to give back State 
costs, so we do not presently qualify to become a State.
  We are asking for voting representation because every citizen 
qualifies for representation in her legislature. As long as the Federal 
Government takes the money of the people I represent every April 15, as 
long as we have men and women fighting and dying abroad, and today 
especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is simply intolerable for there 
to be unequal representation.
  For my constituents, this is a pure and simple question of disparate 
treatment, inequality of treatment and discrimination. At a time when 
we are insisting on democracy not only in Iraq but everywhere we see, 
everywhere we go in the world, at some point people are going to point 
their fingers right at us and say, ``Why do you not give the same 
democracy to the people who live closest to you, the people of your own 
Nation's capital?'' To that, our only answer can be,''Duh?''
  We do not have any answer. The fact that I have colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle, three of them, who have come forward with 
their own bills says to me that there is a gathering consensus that we 
can, in fact, move forward with a bill.
  I am not going to abandon my bill at the moment. Ultimately all of 
these bills will come together, and I have no doubt that together we 
can find the solution to the last remaining and most intolerable scar 
on our democracy.
  My thanks, finally and once again, to my colleagues, the gentleman 
from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis), the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Rohrabacher), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula), and the gentleman 
from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich).

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