Conservative columninst George F. Will wrote a piece in The Washington Post today about the recent move by the House of Representatives to give all the five territorial delegates in the body voting powers in the Committee of the Whole. The move to give the delegate's voting rights could have unforseen consequences for the District's campaign for an actual seat in Congress.
Conservative columninst George F. Will wrote a piece in The Washington Post today about the recent move by the House of Representatives to give all the five territorial delegates in the body voting powers in the Committee of the Whole. The move to give the delegate's voting rights could have unforseen consequences for the District's campaign for an actual seat in Congress.
The fact that he even cares about this re-affirms my fears about what would happen after the Democrats gave the delegates’ their votes back - it’s now being spun as a partisan power grab and the District of Columbia is lumped together with places like Guam and America Samoa in our struggle for voting rights.
Mr. Will should know that the courts have struck down his arguments before. As the Washington Post recently summarized:
"House Republicans filed suit in U.S. District Court in 1993, citing a violation of the Constitution. But Judge Harold H. Greene ruled in favor of Norton and the other delegates, saying their votes posed no constitutional problems because they were ’symbolic’ and therefore ‘meaningless.’ That decision was upheld on appeal."
The case was Michel v. Anderson, 817 F.Supp. 126, 141 D.D.C. 1993, affirmed 14 F.3d 623 D.C. Cir. 1994 - in case you want to review it yourself.
In his op-ed, Mr. Will also argues that:
"The 58,000 Samoans pay no federal income taxes, but their delegate will be able to participate in raising the taxes of, say, Montanans."
That’s a bit of a stretch as the delegates can’t vote on final passage - and if their votes do make a difference, the vote can be done again without the delegates’ participation. Therefore a single vote from Guam or Puerto isn’t going to raise (or lower) taxes in the American heartland.
I do wonder what does Mr. Will thinks about the opposite of that situation. What would he say about the citizens of the District of Columbia who do pay federal taxes and are not represented with a real vote in Congress? By his own taxation/representation logic he surely can’t be in favor of that.
As I feared, this delegate vote is becoming a problem in terms of getting (and keeping) bi-partisan support for H.R. 328 - the bill that gives DC a real seat in Congress - with an additional seat for Utah - which was recently re-introduced by Congresswoman Norton. We need to keep focused on making sure that legislation keeps moving in this Congress. Let’s not get bogged down in this debate with the other Congressional delegates.
Simply put, we in the District deserve more than the delegate vote.