{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://norton.house.gov/media/press-releases/norton-requests-vote-dc-house-floor-committee-whole-118th-congress", "Norton Requests Vote for D.C. on House Floor in Committee of the Whole in 118th Congress", "2022-11-29", "2022", "2022-11", "Democrat", "House", "DC", "Eleanor Holmes Norton", "N000147", "norton.house.gov", "norton", "https://norton.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014 Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today sent a letter to Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (D-CA) requesting that the House rules for the 118th Congress permit the District of Columbia\u2019s delegate to vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole.\n\n\"[T]he delegate vote has had no adverse impact on the operations of the House or on the majority, but its importance to the nearly 700,000 D.C. residents cannot be overstated,\" Norton wrote. \"D.C. residents, who have fought in every American war, beginning with the Revolutionary War, have always had all the obligations of American citizenship, including paying full federal taxes and serving on federal juries. ... I ask that the House grant D.C. residents the modicum of respect the vote in the Committee of the Whole would afford.\"\n\nNorton first won the vote for D.C. on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole in the 103rd Congress. Norton, then in the majority, submitted a legal memorandum to her own leadership arguing that D.C. had a vote in standing committees under House rules and should have a vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole, which is also established by House rules. Republicans challenged the rule in federal court, but it was found constitutional under Article I of the U.S. Constitution by both a federal district court and a federal appeals court. Since then, D.C. has been permitted to vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole when Democrats have controlled the House, but the vote has been taken away when Republicans have controlled the House. The rule permitting D.C.\u2019s delegate to vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole has allowed Norton to vote on amendments.\n\nNorton\u2019s letter follows.\n\nNovember 29, 2022\n\nThe Honorable Kevin McCarthy\n\nRepublican Leader\n\nHouse of Representatives\n\nWashington, DC 20515\n\nDear Leader McCarthy:\n\nI write to request that the House rules for the 118th Congress permit the District of Columbia\u2019s delegate to vote in the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, subject to an automatic revote if such vote is decisive. When permitted, the delegate vote has had no adverse impact on the operations of the House or on the majority, but its importance to the nearly 700,000 D.C. residents cannot be overstated.\n\nThe delegate vote in the Committee of the Whole is constitutional. Both the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit have held that the delegate vote in the Committee of the Whole is constitutional under Article I of the U.S. Constitution. In Michel v. Anderson, the appeals court noted that the longstanding practice of the House is to allow delegates to vote in standing committees and found that the Committee of the Whole vote was not constitutionally distinct from that practice. The court said, \u201cSuffice it to say that we think that insofar as the rule change bestowed additional authority on the delegates, that additional authority is largely symbolic and is not significantly greater than that which they enjoyed serving and voting on the standing committees.\u201d The appeals court specifically considered whether only representatives of the states can constitutionally vote in the Committee of the Whole and concluded that this vote is simply a \u201cminor addition to the office of delegates [that] has [no] constitutional significance.\u201d\n\nHouse rules have permitted the delegate vote in the Committee of the Whole in five Congresses. The automatic revote provision has rarely been triggered. While the delegate vote in the Committee of the Whole has no significance to the work of the House, D.C. residents, as you can imagine, value the vote, however insignificant or symbolic it may seem to others.\n\nD.C. residents, who have fought in every American war, beginning with the Revolutionary War, have always had all the obligations of American citizenship, including paying full federal taxes and serving on federal juries. Indeed, D.C. pays more federal taxes per capita than any state and more total federal taxes than 23 states. However, they have been denied voting representation in Congress and full home rule.\n\nI ask that the House grant D.C. residents the modicum of respect the vote in the Committee of the Whole would afford.\n\nThank you for your consideration.\n\nSincerely,\n\nCongresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:24:37Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://norton.house.gov/media/press-releases/norton-requests-vote-dc-house-floor-committee-whole-118th-congress"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6536498442292213, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}