Senate to Take Up D.C. Voting Rights Feb. 23?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is eyeing a floor debate starting Feb. 23 on a bill to give the District of Columbia a voting member of the House, according to an email leaked to DCist.

An email sent Friday to a Democratic offices asked “if there are any objections” to bringing the legislation to the floor immediately after Congress returns from its Presidents Day recess.

The bill would grant the solidly Democratic District’s congressional representative — currently Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) — full voting rights in the House. In order to attract Republican support, the GOP stronghold of Utah would gain a House district under the
measure.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the measure at a mark-up Wednesday, at which Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was the only dissenter.

The House has yet to take up the legislation, though the lower chamber passed it in 2007, when 22 Republicans voted with the Democratic majority in favor of the bill. The Senate never held a vote.

President Obama, who has been palling around with D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, is expected to sign the bill if it passes both chambers.

-Jeffrey Young