The Republican Congress’ lame-duck leadership rejected a last-minute push from D.C. voting rights advocates Tuesday, denying the historic bill a chance for a vote until at least the next legislative session.
Advocates for the bill promised to continue lobbying until Congress officially ends later this week, but their chances are slim. Outgoing House Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio decided not to call the bill for a vote in the last week of Congress. Boehner rejected the bill after a meeting with Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the bill’s champion.
Under the legislation, Utah would get another representative and D.C. would get its first voting representative. It was the closest D.C. has come to obtaining a vote in Congress since a constitutional amendment failed in the early 1980s.
“We’re not going to accept this decision,” said Ilir Zherka, executive director of DC Vote. “We’re going to push back.”
Those close to Boehner’s decision — who spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations were supposed to be secret — said that the bill’s proponents couldn’t overcome congressional inertia: Republican staffers, demoralized from their humiliating loss in last month’s general elections, simply weren’t interested in prolonging the congressional session with such a far-reaching reform.
Incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., havepromised to push D.C. voting rights in the next session. But the Democrats have made similar promises in the past. Many voting rights groups are still angry at D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton for her role in watering down a voting rights proposal in the 2004 Democratic Party platform.
