Reid advances bill to give D.C. voting member

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) moved Wednesday to end debate on a bill that would give the District of Columbia a voting member of the House, slating a Tuesday cloture vote.

Democrats are unlikely to break a filibuster, thanks to lingering GOP objections to the D.C. voting rights bill, which Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) opposes as constitutionally questionable. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) was optimistic, however, citing the support of Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah).

“It will be up to Mr. McConnell to live with the future,” Norton said in an interview. “It was Congress that deprived us of the vote, just as Congress segregated this city and was responsible for slavery in this city. Congress corrected that practice.”