DC Congressional Rep. Bill Advances

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com Legislation that would grant the District a representative in Congress with full voting rights is scheduled to go before the U.S. Senate next week, a potential milestone in the long battle to secure a seat for the District in the House of Representatives. Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) decided Friday night to send the bill to the Senate floor for debate on Feb. 23, the first major bill on tap after Congress returns from the Presidents' Day break. A preliminary vote is scheduled for Feb. 24. Similar legislation failed in 2007, when Democrats could not secure the 60 votes needed to push the bill through the Senate. But Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said yesterday that she thinks there is a bipartisan group of 63 or 64 senators who will support it this year.

Holmes Norton told reporters, "We do believe we have the votes." To the 58 Democratic votes needed to get past a GOP filibuster (they filibuster everything), add Republican Sens. Susan Collins and George Voinovich, who back the legislation in committee.

Still, Holmes Norton says she expects Republican "mischief," possibly in the form of "poison pill" amendments. Here's hoping it goes through as expected. It's absurd that the nation's capital suffers taxation without representation.