Tom Davis and I got the D.C./Utah House vote bill further than anyone anticipated. We’re disappointed about the Republican leadership’s decision against consideration of the bill during the lame duck not for ourselves but for residents of the District and Utah and all those who joined this fight for justice over the past four years. We recognize that this decision may be final, but we will continue to seek passage until Congress completes its business and adjourns this week. Otherwise, we will re-introduce the bill as our first order of business in the 110th Congress.

We are not novices about House and Senate procedures, and we know that time has been our major opponent in this race. We also know that things have never been easy –or fair– for the District. That has been the rule for my entire 16 years in the Congress, and it has been true for the District ever since its creation at the dawning of the Republic. I therefore am not in the least discouraged. After four years of arduous negotiations to get a viable bill and one that both Democrats and Republicans could support, giving up is not an option. Until the gavel goes down sine die on the 109th Congress, we will be in the struggle to get the D.C. House vote passed.

How heartbreaking to see a bill for Utah, the most Republican state in the union, and for Democratic D.C. stopped on the brink of passage by the House and Senate. Our hats go off to Governor Jon Huntsman and to the Utah legislature, who jumped through hoops to meet the unexpected requirements of the Judiciary Committee only to be disappointed after all. Very special thanks are due to the two Utah Senators Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett and to Senator Joe Lieberman who wrote to the Republican and Democratic Leaders this week and asked them to “move to hold the bill at the desk and pass it before the 109th Congress ends.”

This entry was posted on Friday, December 8th, 2006 at 9:35 am and is filed under Politics .