Norton on Voting Rights: I Think We’re Going to Get It

Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District of Columbia’s non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives, says she thinks the District will get voting rights in the House during President Obama’s White House tenure.

“Barack was a cosponsor,” Norton told The Hill last night, referring to a previous bill to give D.C. voting representation in the House. “I think we are going to get it.”

The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on D.C. voting rights legislation next Tuesday, Jan. 27. The bill would give D.C. one voting representative in the House.

The last time D.C. voting rights came up in Congress (September 2007), a Senate bill failed garner the 60 votes needed to pass a procedural blockage, though 57 senators voted to advance it. Among its supporters was
Obama, a cosponsor.

The House had voted overwhelmingly in favor of D.C. voting rights earlier that year, passing a similar bill 241-177 in April 2007.

–Kevin Bogardus and Chris Good