Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Longtime US Dominion to Receive Voting Rights

That's right, according to congress matters, it just passed cloture. Chris Bowers:

The act grants D.C. a full voting member in the House of Representatives, a seat which will be held by a Democrat for a long, long, loooong time. Currently, the seat is held by Eleanor Holmes Norton, who is a frequent guest on the Colbert Report. In exchange, the Act also grants a fourth member of Congress to Utah (currently Utah has three Representatives, two Republicans and one Democrat). Since Utah was next in line to receive an additional Representative, this is the sort of bi-partisan compromise I can live with. We end a great stain on our Republic by giving D.C. representation in the U.S. House, get a new, uber-solid Democratic seat, and all it required was giving Utah something it would have received in 2012 anyway.

This will temporarily increase the number of full voting members in the House to 437, and makes the partisan breakdown 257-178, with two vacancies (NY-20 and UT-04). For the 2012 elections, D.C. will keep it's full voting rights, but there will be only 434 House districts seats outside of D.C.
I love how outside of the DC area Elenor Holmes Norton is known for her numerous appearances on the Colbert Report.

As for the bill, according to the City Paper there could be multiple legal challenges so we're definitely not out of the woods yet. But this is huge progress on something that is long, long overdue.

4 comments:

  1. OK. but if you guys try to become a state i think the government will have to put its proverbial foot down. statehood is reserved for places you can see with the naked eye on a map of the entire United States...and rhode island.

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  2. oh wow, a full voting member in the House of Representatives, how cute. maybe next they'll let a dc native stand outside the doors of the senate or hide in the ventilation ducts.

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  3. hey, it's progress. i'll take it. this sure beats last year's "Hey District Residents: F*** You!" Act

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