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Wednesday, May 17, 2006

MundiMuster! Support DC Congressional Voting Rights

[via Progressive Democrats of America]
The DC Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act (HR-5388) is being marked up in the House Committee on Government Reform, chaired by Tom Davis (R-VA), who is sponsoring this legislation with the enthusiastic support and co-sponsorship of DC Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC). The vote will be taken THIS THURSDAY.

This historic act would give DC residents, who have long paid heavy federal taxes and who continue to fight in wars without real representation, Congressional voting representation in the House for the first time in 200 years! While DC residents deserve full Congressional representation, including two Senators, this legislation is a major step in the right direction and is being supported by DC Vote www.dcvote.org which has put out an action alert at http://www.dcvote.org/advocacy/alerts.cfm

HR-5388 would permanently increase the number of Representatives by two, and add one seat temporarily in Utah, which was next in line for an additional seat at the last census. The Utah seat will be added “at large” so as not to trigger a redistricting process which would have likely unseated the lone Utah Democrat. Whether or not Utah will retain the seat will be determined by the usual national reapportionment process after the next census.

According to DC voting rights legislative strategists, it’s important to focus on encouraging the Republicans on the House Government Reform Committee to co-sponsor this legislation. While six Republicans already support the bill, we have identified 7 Republicans whose support could be earned by a sufficient number of constituent contacts. The six Committee Republicans already supporting HR-5388 are: Chair Tom Davis (VA), Vice-Chair Christopher Shays (CT), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL), Todd Russell Platts (PA), Chris Cannon (UT), and Darrell E. Issa (CA).

The seven Republicans to target are:

John L. Mica (FL)
Steven C. LaTourette (OH)
Candice S. Miller (MI)
Michael R. Turner (OH)
Kenny Marchant (TX)
Lynn A. Westmoreland (GA)
Charles W. Dent (PA)

If you are a constituent of any of these Committee Members, please urge them to support this legislation! You can use the DC Vote action alert at http://www.dcvote.org/advocacy/alerts.cfm or call or e-mail them directly. For this call, you should not identify yourself by party affiliation, but merely as a constituent who feels this issue is important!

Thank you! Progressive Democrats of the District of Columbia
(Where Taxation Without Representation still reigns!)

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