The Associated Press | Posted: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 11:00 pm
WASHINGTON -- Mayor Adrian M. Fenty on Wednesday urged residents to march on Capitol Hill next month to rally support for legislation that would give the District of Columbia a vote in Congress and Utah a fourth U.S. representative.
In his State of the District address, Fenty invited residents to march from Freedom Plaza to the Capitol on April 16.
"We are the only capital of a democracy in the world that has no vote in the national legislature," the mayor told hundreds of senior citizens at a wellness center in Southeast Washington.
The United States "brought democracy to Baghdad before bringing it home to the district," he said.
Fenty called for residents' support one day after the White House threatened to veto legislation giving the district a vote in the House.
The bill, which the House is to vote on Friday, would give a full seat to the heavily Democratic district and add another seat for Utah, which is solidly Republican. Utah narrowly missed obtaining a fourth House seat after the 2000 Census.
The district has fought for decades to gain a voting seat in Congress. Currently, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton can only vote in committees and on amendments to legislation.
The bill, the White House said in a statement, violates constitutional language saying the House should be made up of representatives chosen by the people of the states. "The District of Columbia is not a state," it said, and if the legislation reaches President Bush's desk, "his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill."
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.