Congressional Seat for D.C.

I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, this is a new Congress. This is a Congress with respect for the Constitution and the principles for which it stands. This is a Congress that respects the underlying principle that people in this country deserve the right to be represented and to have a voice in this great democracy of ours.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the rule and in support of this legislation that is long overdue and which will correct an anomaly in our democracy, an anomaly which denies representation to approximately 600,000 residents of this country.

Residents of the District of Columbia have had to wait over 170 years to vote in this country's Presidential election. They have had to wait for over 180 years for the right to exercise home rule. They have had to wait for over 200 years to have a vote in the House of Representatives. And we should not make them wait one day more.

These residents live in the shadow of our great Capitol, who pay taxes to our Federal Government, who serve in our military, who fight and die to protect the very representative rights that we have in this country, but yet we deny these citizens the right to have control over the laws that govern our country.

They have no Representative who can vote in this House of Representatives. This past Monday, Mr. Speaker, the residents of the District of Columbia engaged in an act of grass-roots lobbying in its purest form. Thousands of these unrepresented residents marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol on the city's annual Emancipation Day, marking the day that slavery ended in the District. They marched to the Capitol to ask this legislative body to recognize and rectify the injustice that they experience every single day.

They marched for the right to have a say in this legislative body. These citizens, these students, these senior citizens, workers, activists, and church members marched to have a vote. This is a Congress that respects the Constitution. And my respect for the Constitution goes back to very early days. And one of the greatest things that I have ever received was recognition, even in law school, by the Federal Bar Association for outstanding performance in constitutional law.

The Framers of our Constitution gave Congress the right to make laws concerning the District of Columbia, and it is under the power of the District clause of the Constitution that I join today in supporting the District of Columbia Voting Rights Act.

This is long overdue. The last Congress earned the distinction of being called the 'worse than the do-nothing Congress.' This is a Congress that is going to get the job done, and this is a Congress that is going to respect the Constitution.