Norton and Bowser to Urge House Republicans to Restore D.C.'s Delegate Vote, Tuesday

Press Release

Before the 115th Congress convenes, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will hold a press conference with District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Office of Veterans Affairs Director Ely S. Ross to call on Congress to restore D.C.'s delegate vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, which was upheld as constitutional by two federal courts in 1993 and 1994. The press conference will take place Tuesday, January 3, 2016, at 11:00 a.m., in 2456 Rayburn House Office Building (Fourth Floor).

BACKGROUND:

The Committee of the Whole vote would allow the delegate representing the District to vote on amendments on the House floor. The House rules have permitted Norton to vote in three Congresses: the 103rd, 110th, and 111th. She voted on matters of considerable importance during those Congresses, including repealing the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

Norton, shortly after becoming a Member of the House in the 103rd Congress, proposed the Committee of the Whole vote in a legal memorandum to House Democratic leaders, who, after vetting it with outside counsel, agreed that the vote was constitutional. Democrats controlled the House and granted Norton the right to vote on the House floor for the first time. Both the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that the delegate vote, like the delegate vote in committees, is in the discretion of the House, could be granted by the rules of the House, and is constitutional under Article I of the U.S. Constitution. The delegate vote would be subject to an automatic revote if such a vote is decisive, but the vote was almost always final. When House Republicans regained the majority in the 104th Congress, however, they eliminated D.C.'s vote in the Committee of the Whole. In the 110th Congress, Democrats regained control of the House and restored the vote. On the first day as the new majority, however, House Republicans adopted rules for the 112th Congress that stripped D.C. residents of their vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole.

Earlier this month, Norton sent a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) requesting that the House rules for the 115th Congress permit the District delegate to vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole. Speaker Ryan voted for the D.C. House Voting Rights Act of 2007 (H.R. 1905), which would have granted the District full voting rights in the House. The 115th Congress will be the first time Ryan is speaker when the House rules are adopted.

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