{ "id": "RL33824", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "RL33824", "active": false, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 361541, "date": "2009-03-04", "retrieved": "2016-04-07T02:42:02.310945", "title": "The Constitutionality of Awarding the Delegate for the District of Columbia a Vote in the House of Representatives or the Committee of the Whole", "summary": "A variety of proposals were made in the 110th Congress regarding granting the Delegate of the District of Columbia voting rights in the House. On January 24, 2007, the House approved H.Res. 78, which changed the House Rules to allow the D.C. delegate (in addition to the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico and the delegates from American Samoa, Guam, and the Virgin Islands) to vote in the Committee of the Whole, subject to a revote in the full House if such votes proved decisive. A bill introduced by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, H.R. 1905, the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007, would have given the District of Columbia Delegate a vote in the Full House. On April 19, 2007, H.R. 1905 passed the House by a vote of 241 to 177. A related bill, S. 1257, was considered by the Senate on September 18 of that year, but a motion to invoke cloture failed by a vote of 57-42. Similar bills to give the Delegate a vote in the Full House\u2014H.R. 157 and S. 160\u2014have been introduced in the 111th Congress. S. 160 was approved by the Senate on February 26, 2009, by a vote of 61-37.\nThese two approaches appeared to raise separate, but related, constitutional issues. As to granting the Delegate a vote in the full House, it is difficult to identify either constitutional text or existing case law that would directly support the allocation by statute of the power to vote in the full House to the District of Columbia Delegate. Further, that case law that does exist would seem to indicate that not only is the District of Columbia not a \u201cstate\u201d for purposes of representation, but that congressional power over the District of Columbia does not represent a sufficient power to grant congressional representation. In particular, at least six of the Justices who participated in what appears to be the most relevant Supreme Court case on this issue, National Mutual Insurance Co. of the District of Columbia v. Tidewater Transfer Co., authored opinions rejecting the proposition that Congress\u2019s power under the District Clause was sufficient to effectuate structural changes to the federal government. Further, the remaining three Justices, who found that Congress could grant diversity jurisdiction to District of Columbia citizens despite the lack of such jurisdiction in Article III, specifically limited their opinion to instances where the legislation in question did not involve the extension of fundamental rights or substantially disturb the political balance between the federal government and the states. To the extent that granting the Delegate a vote in the house would be found to meet these distinguishing criteria, all nine Justices in Tidewater Transfer Co. would arguably have found the instant proposal to be unconstitutional.\nH.Res. 78, on the other hand, is similar to amendments to the House Rules that were adopted during the 103rd Congress and survived judicial scrutiny at both the District Court and the Court of Appeals level. It would appear, however, that these amendments were upheld primarily because of the provision calling for a revote by the full House when the vote of the delegates was decisive in the Committee of the Whole. In conclusion, although not beyond question, it would appear likely that Congress does not have authority to grant voting representation in the House of Representatives to the Delegate from the District of Columbia as contemplated under H.R. 1905. As the revote provisions provided for in H.Res. 78 would render the Delegate\u2019s vote in the Committee of the Whole largely symbolic, however, the amendments to the House Rules would be likely to pass constitutional muster.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/RL33824", "sha1": "8a44f08dee4ba95cae217af150d89d5d26834628", "filename": "files/20090304_RL33824_8a44f08dee4ba95cae217af150d89d5d26834628.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RL33824", "sha1": "532ba6f3bf03a401dceaf0942b138d75ff4a4f98", "filename": "files/20090304_RL33824_532ba6f3bf03a401dceaf0942b138d75ff4a4f98.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc819880/", "id": "RL33824_2007Oct25", "date": "2007-10-25", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "The Constitutionality of Awarding the Delegate for the District of Columbia a Vote in the House of Representatives or the Committee of the Whole", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20071025_RL33824_f4954969e271f4ae42e7fdf0b9ab9b44fa72301e.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20071025_RL33824_f4954969e271f4ae42e7fdf0b9ab9b44fa72301e.html" } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc808507/", "id": "RL33824_2007Sep14", "date": "2007-09-14", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "The Constitutionality of Awarding the Delegate for the District of Columbia a Vote in the House of Representatives or the Committee of the Whole", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20070914_RL33824_b15831c58d8e0dcb22f6a929ee80fb92a52dc2ef.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20070914_RL33824_b15831c58d8e0dcb22f6a929ee80fb92a52dc2ef.html" } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc809334/", "id": "RL33824_2007Jan24", "date": "2007-01-24", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "The Constitutionality of Awarding the Delegate for the District of Columbia a Vote in the House of Representatives or the Committee of the Whole", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20070124_RL33824_7396a03c2209dd2e068bfdd174b827084655138f.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20070124_RL33824_7396a03c2209dd2e068bfdd174b827084655138f.html" } ], "topics": [] } ], "topics": [ "Constitutional Questions" ] }