District of Columbia voting rights

Washington, DC, often referred to as the District of Columbia or simply "DC," was created as a federal district in 1709 from portions of Maryland and Virginia. Article 1, section 8, clause 17 of the United States Constitution, also known as the "District clause," provides for a federal district, separate from all other states, to serve as the permanent national capital. Thus, the federal district of Washington, DC, was formed with the intention of keeping the capital of the United States separate from the states themselves. Since the District of Columbia is not a state, its citizens are not represented in the two houses of Congress, as are the residents of the fifty US states. Instead, the District has only a single nonvoting representative in the House of Representatives and no representation in the Senate or the electoral college system.

Many people consider the lack of congressional representation for the people of the District of Columbia to be an outdated historical holdover that should be remedied immediately, either by granting representation or by declaring statehood. Others suggest that the lack of representation indicates deliberate partisan politics at work. They contend that the majority of the District's residents are Democratic in political affiliation, while individuals and organizations that oppose congressional representation for the District of Columbia tend to be Republicans.

Over the years, different groups have proposed a number of solutions to the lack of representation for the citizens of the District of Columbia, with varying degrees of success. The District of Columbia Home Rule Act was passed in 1973, granting the District increased powers of self-governance. However, the proposed District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment of 1978, which would have provided for congressional representation for the District as well as participation in the electoral college process, failed to be ratified by thirty-eight states prior to its expiration on August 22, 1985. Other groups have advocated more drastic measures, such as granting statehood to the District or having it reabsorbed, or retroceded, back into the state of Maryland.

Understanding the Discussion

The District of Columbia Home Rule Act: A federal law passed in 1973 that increased the self-governing power of DC residents by allowing them to elect a mayor and establishing the Council of the District of Columbia, a local legislative body consisting of an elected chairman and twelve elected and representative members.

The District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment: A constitutional amendment proposed in 1978 that, had it been ratified, would have granted full congressional and electoral representation to the District of Columbia.

New Columbia: The proposed name of the new fifty-first state that would be created if the campaign for DC statehood were successful.

Self-determination: The principle that people have the right to determine their own political status and freely pursue their own social, economic, and cultural development.

"Taxation without representation": A reference to the slogan "No taxation without representation," used by American colonists in the late eighteenth century to express their dissatisfaction with British rule. This historic phrase has been revived and applied to the quest for congressional representation for the District of Columbia. It has since become the District's unofficial motto and is even available by request on official DC-issued vehicle license plates.

History

In 1790, the District of Columbia was created from sections of Maryland and Virginia that the respective states had ceded for the formation of the federal district. For the next decade, the residents of the District continued to vote for, and even run as, candidates for the US Congress representing either Maryland or Virginia, according to their prior state affiliation. In 1801, Congress passed the District of Columbia Organic Act, which discontinued this type of state-affiliated representation for DC residents and placed the District under the jurisdiction of Congress, according to the powers described in article 1, section 8 of the US Constitution. The act provided for a presidentially appointed district governor and a legislature with limited power. Unfortunately, the new government succumbed to corruption, and Congress revoked the District's right to self-government after only a few years.

For almost an entire century, from 1878 until 1967, the District of Columbia was governed by a three-person commission appointed by the president. During this time, the city's residents had no representation and no power to elect their own officials. Not until the passage of the Twenty-Third Amendment in 1961 did DC residents gain the right to cast a vote for president of the United States.

In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an executive order that terminated the commission and replaced it with a mayor-commissioner and a council, the members of which were also appointed by the president. In 1970, the District was given back its nonvoting delegate in the House of Representatives. This member was permitted to speak on the floor of the House but did not possess the power to vote on legislation.

The District of Columbia Home Rule Act was passed in 1973, granting increased self-governing power to the District. This act allowed for the election of a mayor and established the Council of the District of Columbia, a legislative branch of local government that consists of an elected chairman and twelve elected and representative members. However, Congress still maintains ultimate authority over the District's budget and any legislation passed by the Council.

In 1978, both houses of Congress voted to pass the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment, which would have provided for congressional and electoral representation of the District of Columbia. However, in order to be adopted, the amendment had to be ratified by thirty-eight states (three-fourths of the fifty states) within seven years. By 1985, the proposed amendment had only been ratified by sixteen states.

Voters approved a 1980 initiative to create a constitutional convention and write a state constitution for the District. Two years later, a constitution was approved for the proposed fifty-first state of New Columbia. Since then, although legislation to enact the proposed state constitution or to allow congressional representation for citizens of the District has been introduced in Congress on numerous occasions, such measures have never passed. However, since 1990, the District of Columbia has been represented in Congress by two "shadow senators," who function similarly to US senators on behalf of DC citizens but who are not actually recognized by the US government as senators.

Proposals for change in the District of Columbia generally advocate one of four solutions: increasing the power of local government, granting full congressional representation to the District as it currently exists, granting statehood to the District, or retroceding the District to the state of Maryland. The latter proposal harks back to the original formation of the District from sections of Maryland and Virginia. In 1846, the Virginia portion was retroceded to Virginia; therefore, the District of Columbia currently consists solely of land that was once part of Maryland. If such a measure were approved by the US Congress and the state legislature of Maryland, the residents of the area would have congressional representation as Maryland state residents.

Congressional Representation in the District of Columbia Today

By the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century, DC citizens were represented in the House of Representatives by a nonvoting delegate who could sit on committees, participate in debate, and introduce legislation but could not vote on the House floor. The District had no representation in the United States Senate. The local government of the District of Columbia, with its elected mayor and the elected Council of the District of Columbia, had the most self-governing power since the District was created in 1790. However, the more than seven hundred thousand residents who lived there still lacked direct voting representation in the two houses of Congress.

In April 2007, the House voted to pass the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act, which would have given the District a voting seat in the House while also adding an additional seat for the state of Utah. The Senate voted in September 2007 to end debate on this bill, enabling the Senate to vote on it. However, only fifty-seven votes were cast of the sixty needed to end debate and move to a vote, and the bill failed. Then-senator Barack Obama, at the time campaigning for the 2008 presidential election, promised that if elected, he would sign such a bill if it passed Congress.

In January 2009, less than a week after the newly elected President Obama took office, the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act was reintroduced in the Senate. The bill passed, but with an amendment introduced by Republican senator John Ensign that would have repealed a number of DC gun-control laws and removed the District's authority to enact new ones. The House was unable to muster enough votes to bring the bill to the floor without Ensign's amendment, and DC politicians were unwilling to let it stand. The bill was reintroduced in the House in 2011, sans amendment, but was ultimately referred to committee.

A number of groups continued to work toward their goals of autonomy and statehood or congressional representation for the voters in the District of Columbia. The nonprofit organization DC Vote worked to educate Americans about the political status of Washington, DC, and its residents. The DC Statehood Green Party, formed by a merger of the DC Statehood Party and the DC affiliate of the national Green Party in 1999, served as the main political group dedicated to DC statehood. When a ballot measure regarding petitioning Congress to allow the district to become a new state was introduced in November 2016, it was passed after being supported by 79 percent of voters in the area.

In early 2019, after the Democratic Party had regained majority of the House, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who was serving as the nonvoting House delegate representing Washington, DC, introduced the Washington, DC Admission Act, which would give the district congressional representation in the form of two senators and at least one House member with the ability to vote by making it the country's fifty-first state. Under the act, most of the land making up the district would become the new state while those parts containing federal buildings would be excluded to form the nation's capital. Following a debate over amendments proposed by Republicans, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform approved the act, thereby passing it on for a full House vote, in February 2020.

These essays and any opinions, information or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.

Bibliography

Periodicals

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Soloway, Colin. "DC Voting Rights." CQ Researcher 11 Apr. 2008: 313–36. Internet Archive: Wayback Machine. Web. 20 Oct. 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20081202134922/https://www.dcvote.org/pdfs//CQResearcherApr08%5FDCVotingRights.pdf.

Yager, Jordy, and Russell Berman. "DC Voting-Rights Bill Won't Get Vote in House This Week." Hill 21 Apr. 2010: 3. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 20 Oct. 2015. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.Aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=49814267&site=pov-live.

Websites and Digital Files

Cole, Devan. "Panel Sends DC Statehood Bill to Full House for Consideration." CNN, 11 Feb. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/02/11/politics/dc-statehood-bill-house-committee-approves/index.html. Accessed 6 May 2020.

Cornish, Audie. "Hurdles Remain for DC Voting Rights Measure." NPR. NPR, 1 Mar. 2009. Web. 20 Oct. 2015. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101321347.

"DC Home Rule." Council of the District of Columbia. Council of the District of Columbia, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2015. http://dccouncil.us/pages/dc-home-rule.

"DC Residents May Get Vote in Congress." NBC News. NBCNews.com, 2 Jan. 2007. Web. 20 Oct. 2015. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16437036/.

"Democratic Equality for DC." DC Vote. DC Vote, n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2015. http://dcvote.org/democratic-equality.

"The Difference between DC Democracy & DC Representation." Progressive Review. Sam Smith, 2000. Web. 5 Sept. 2015. http://prorev.com/dcrep.htm.

Hersher, Rebecca. "D.C. Votes Overwhelmingly to Become 51st State." NPR, 9 Nov. 2016, www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/09/501412360/d-c-votes-overwhelmingly-to-become-51st-state. Accessed 6 May 2020.

Sibley, Ryan. "District Residents Rally Once Again for Congressional Representation." American Observer. Amer. U, 8 Nov. 2007. Web. 20 Oct. 2015. http://wp11.americanobserver.net/2007/11/district-residents-rally-once-again-for-congressional-representation/.

United States. Cong. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009: Hearing. 111th Cong., 1st sess. Washington: GPO, 2009. US Government Publishing Office. Web. 20 Oct. 2015. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-111hhrg46817/html/CHRG-111hhrg46817.htm.

Welna, David. "DC Moves Step Closer to Voting Rights." NPR. NPR, 24 Feb. 2009. Web. 20 Oct. 2015. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101106244.