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The District of Columbia has waited more than two centuries to get a vote in Congress, and now it looks like the city's roughly 600,000 residents will have to wait even longer.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced Tuesday that lawmakers will not take up legislation this week giving D.C. residents a vote in the House of Representatives, and said he was "profoundly disappointed."
The Maryland Democrat also said it was unlikely the enfranchisement bill, which became embroiled in a gun rights dispute and other issues, would be considered in the House later this year.
With Democrats, the main supporters of the legislation, expected to lose seats in the November election, the possibilities for resurrecting the measure next year were uncertain.
The bill would have increased full House membership from 435 to 437, giving District residents a vote while adding a temporary at-large seat for Republican-leaning Utah, which narrowly missed out on getting an extra seat after the 2000 census.
The House passed the bill in 2007 and the Senate approved it last year. But the Senate bill came with an amendment that would have forced the District to effectively eliminate its tough gun control laws.
House members, including the District's nonvoting delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, have been trying for the past year to find a formula that would allow a vote while satisfying the powerful gun rights lobby in Congress. But in the end, no resolution was reached.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced Tuesday that lawmakers will not take up legislation this week giving D.C. residents a vote in the House of Representatives, and said he was "profoundly disappointed."
The Maryland Democrat also said it was unlikely the enfranchisement bill, which became embroiled in a gun rights dispute and other issues, would be considered in the House later this year.
With Democrats, the main supporters of the legislation, expected to lose seats in the November election, the possibilities for resurrecting the measure next year were uncertain.
The bill would have increased full House membership from 435 to 437, giving District residents a vote while adding a temporary at-large seat for Republican-leaning Utah, which narrowly missed out on getting an extra seat after the 2000 census.
The House passed the bill in 2007 and the Senate approved it last year. But the Senate bill came with an amendment that would have forced the District to effectively eliminate its tough gun control laws.
House members, including the District's nonvoting delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, have been trying for the past year to find a formula that would allow a vote while satisfying the powerful gun rights lobby in Congress. But in the end, no resolution was reached.
It's sad. I hate to see DC continue to be denied the right to representation.
