The Liberty Papers

The White House Made it fairly clear yesterday that it opposes the latest effort to give the District of Columbia a vote on the house floor:

The White House declared its opposition yesterday to a bill that would give the District its first full seat in the House of Representatives, saying it is unconstitutional, and a key Senate supporter said such concerns could kill the measure.

“The Constitution specifies that only ‘the people of the several states’ elect representatives to the House,” said White House spokesman Alex Conant. “And D.C. is not a state.”

He declined to say whether President Bush would veto the bill, but the White House appeared to be sending a message to Congress just as momentum for the measure was building. It cleared two House committees this week, and the Democratic leadership has vowed to pass it on the House floor next week.

The bill seeks to increase the House permanently to 437 seats, from 435. In a bipartisan compromise, one seat would go to the overwhelmingly Democratic District, which has a nonvoting delegate in the House. The other would go to the next state in line to pick up a seat based on the 2000 Census: Utah, which leans Republican.

Several Republican House members assailed the bill this week, noting that the Constitution reserves representation for residents of states, not districts. Supporters countered with a section of the Constitution known as the “District Clause,” which gives Congress sweeping powers over the city. Legal scholars have disagreed over who is right.

The bill’s advocates knew that the White House had constitutional concerns. But Conant said the White House hadn’t formally opposed the bill until it had cleared the Judiciary Committee on Thursday and was headed for the House floor. “We had not taken a position until after the committee vote,” he said.

The White House’s position, of course, is, as I wrote earlier this week, completely correct. Furthermore, the idea that the District Clause somehow supersedes the Constitution’s clear requirement that only state’s have the right to have a vote in Congress is just absurd.

Despite the clear Constitutional problems with this bill, it made it through the House Judiciary Committee and will clearly succeed in a full vote on the House floor. It’s fate in the Senate, however, is far from certain:

Supporters of the measure have anticipated a difficult fight in the Senate, where few Republicans have embraced it. The bill’s sponsors, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), have pinned their hopes on the Republican senators from Utah, believing they could persuade colleagues to pass it.

But both Utah senators indicated yesterday that the bill could be in trouble. A spokeswoman for Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R) said he continues to support it. However, “based on the constitutional concerns raised by the White House and others in Congress, it may be difficult to get the 60 votes to move this bill,” said the spokeswoman, Emily Christensen, referring to the threshold necessary to avoid a filibuster.

If it does, though, the last test will be what the President does. Hopefully, he will have the sense and courage to veto this unconstitutional mess.

Originally Posted at Below The Beltway