Hearing of the Committee on Rules
Open Hearing to receive Member testimony on proposed changes in House Rules
I want to thank the Committee for once again entertaining my request and that of the Chairman of the D.C. Subcommittee, Representative Tom Davis, and the Vice Chair of the Subcommittee, Representative Connie Morella, for the return of the vote of District of Columbia residents in the Committee of the Whole. The personal appearance with me in support of this bipartisan request by Chairman Davis and Vice Chair Morella indicates that the fundamental issue rises above political considerations.
I represent more than a half million taxpaying American residents. Uniquely, they have no voting representation in the House and Senate, despite their taxpaying status. After submitting a legal memorandum, I requested and obtained the right to vote in the Committee of the Whole in the 103rd Congress after outside attorneys and experts found no constitutional bar. Subsequently, the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals both ruled that the House could constitutionally allow delegates to vote on the House floor. At the beginning of the 104th Congress, the votes of all five delegates were withdrawn in a package of rules that did not address the special circumstances of the District of Columbia one way or the other. I do not intend to prejudice the rights of the other delegates to seek their own votes, although I know of no effort by them to do so at this time. The District, however, is in a class by itself because D.C. residents pay federal taxes on their income. Actually, there are three unique reasons why the vote should be returned to D.C. residents: (1) the unique taxpaying status of my constituents; (2) the unique privilege this body asserts of appropriating and voting on the city's locally-raised taxpayer revenue; and (3) the unique requirement that each and every law passed by the local city council be reviewed by Congress.
First, unlike the residents of the territories, my constituents pay $1.9 billion annually in federal income taxes, making them third per capita among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Thus, D.C. residents are the only Americans who must comply with every obligation without enjoying every benefit of citizenship. They have fought and died in every war since the American Revolution. In the last war, Desert Storm, D.C. sent more participants per capita than 47 states.
Second, the District is the only local jurisdiction whose local budget, composed of locally-raised taxpayer revenues, must be appropriated by the Congress and can be changed in any fashion by a vote of the Congress.
Third, the District is the only jurisdiction whose local laws and budget can be revoked and changed by Congress. Americans who live in the states, territories and localities all have autonomy over their own laws, with no approval by the Congress required. Surely, the corollary to retaining ultimate power over a local jurisdiction's law should be allowing its representative a vote on the matter.
The District is the only jurisdiction whose American citizens do not enjoy full democratic self-government. Like every state and locality, the four territories are self-governing. However, even the Home Rule Act affording limited self-government rights to the District reserves to Congress the right to make any changes or impose any obligations on District residents without their consent or the consent of locally elected officials.
The U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals have ruled that there is no constitutional impediment to allowing delegates to vote in the Committee of the Whole. Rather, the courts found that under Article I, Section 5, Clause 2 of the Constitution, "Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings." The Rules promulgated in the 103rd Congress and my submission to the Committee today contain a re-vote provision to ensure that a delegate's vote does not provide the deciding margin in the Committee of the Whole. This provision was added to remove any constitutional doubt in a case where a delegate's vote moved a matter forward to a final vote in formal House proceedings, where delegates cannot vote at this time. Thus, the delegate vote would still leave taxpaying District residents without a full vote in the House and with no vote in the Senate.
It is clear the Congress has no desire to make the D.C. delegate's job any more difficult. Yet, lacking help in the Senate or a vote in the Committee of the Whole, the District's delegate meets challenges faced by no other Member. The House gains nothing by retracting a vote that was won fair and square by a vote of the House and affirmed by the federal courts. The House loses nothing by returning a single vote of a Member.
Returning the delegate vote to the District would be an appropriate way for Congress to recognize the District's return to solvency two years ahead of the congressional mandate, the statutory end of the control board in 2001, and the clear evidence that the District is already at the cusp of a promising new era. I ask that you afford my constituents respect as taxpaying American citizens and include in the rules package for the 107th Congress the right of the D.C. delegate to vote in the Committee of the Whole.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE RULES OF THE HOUSE FOR THE 107th CONGRESS
To be added as paragraph (c) to clause 3 of Rule III (Resident Commissioner and Delegates):
"In a Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, the Delegate to the House from the District of Columbia shall possess the same powers and privileges as Members of the House."
To be added as paragraph (g) to clause 6 of Rule XVIII (Of Committees of the Whole House):
"Whenever a recorded vote on any question has been decided by a margin within which the vote cast by the Delegate to the House from the District of Columbia has been decisive, the Committee of the House shall automatically rise and the Speaker shall put that question de novo without intervening debate or other business. Upon the announcement of the vote on that question, the Committee of the Whole shall resume without intervention."
