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District of Columbia House Voting Rigths Act of 2007

August 4, 2009
Floor Statement
Rep. Maxine Waters [D-CA]: Thank you so very much, Madam Speaker, and Chairman John Conyers.

A lot of people want to know what difference does it make that Democrats are now in the majority. This is a fine example. Chairman Conyers and others have been working on this issue for so very long.

And I rise in support of H.R. 1433, the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007, of which I am a proud cosponsor.

In a country where basic human and civil rights were only incrementally given to similarly situated citizens throughout its history, I applaud my colleagues for their courage and integrity to consider this measure and support its passage after 200 years of injustice.

I thank the gentlelady from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) for their leadership and tenacity. Ms. Norton has consistently fought for the 16 years since she was first elected to Congress as my classmate in the 102nd Congress.

Just like securing the right to vote, or securing civil rights, for that matter, for African Americans, women and other minorities was a long fight with slow rewards, seeking the franchisement of D.C. citizens has been equally as difficult.

Just as it was shameful and unconscionable for African Americans and women to not have a vote until the passage of the 19th amendment, and of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, it is unconscionable for tax-paying citizens in America not to have a vote in Congress in the 21st century.

It is even more ironic that D.C. citizens have no vote in Congress when it operates right in their back yard. To discriminate against tax-paying citizens for over 200 years is an embarrassment to our democracy and undermines fundamental constitutional principles.

Nowhere in the United States Constitution is the word "State" defined, but some of our colleagues now wish to gerrymander a definition that would somehow distinguish citizens of D.C. from citizens of every other voting State.

Furthermore, not only does the guaranty clause, which reads that "the United
States shall guarantee a republican form of government," but the fifth amendment equal protection clause, which insures that all persons of the United States enjoy equal protection of the laws, make it clear that D.C. citizens should receive voting representation.

Article IV, section 4 of the Constitution guarantees us a republican form of government. And the Supreme Court has defined a republican form of government as one constructed on the principle that the superior power resides in the body of the people. Are D.C. citizens not a part of the people?

Mr. Chairman, in this new Congress we hope to rid America of all traces of disenfranchisement, of impediments to voting. And giving D.C. residents a vote in the Congress is a major part of this goal.

I thank you, Congressman John Conyers, for your leadership.

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