The House has abandoned plans to take up legislation giving residents of the District of Columbia a vote in Congress that has been denied them for over two centuries.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday that he was "extraordinarily disappointed" that the legislation, which was expected to come to the House floor this week, appeared unlikely to advance due to opposition to an amendment to the bill that would have elimated most of the city's stringent gun control regulations.
"At this point in time I do not see the ability to move it in this session of Congress," said Hoyer.
The measure would have given the District's 600,000 residents a House vote and would have temporarily given Republican-leaning Utah a new at-large seat, expanding the size of the House from 435 to 437 members.
But giving the people of DC a full-voting Representative...an overwhelmingly African-American city, by the way...full voting rights? Like any Republican is going to allow that. Time and time again this gets poisoned by Republicans insisting that DC pays a price for the rights the rest of us take for granted. Even giving Utah a new voting district wasn't good enough for the Republicans this time. And for 200 years it hasn't been.
It's not the House seat; it's the eventual and inevitable two Senate seats that are guaranteed to be held by dusky liberals forever.
ReplyDeleteTHAT would kill the repugs once and for all.