D.C. delegate asks Bush to reconsider veto

WASHINGTON — District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton pleaded with President Bush on Tuesday to reconsider his threat to veto a bill that would create a voting House seat for the district and an additional seat in Congress for Utah.

Her plea came in response to an official "statement of administrative policy" issued Tuesday by the White House, speaking out strongly against the bill's provisions granting the district voting rights. The statement said Congress would need to pass an amendment to the Constitution instead of just a regular bill.

"If H.R. 1433 were presented to the president, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill," said the statement, released by the Executive Office of the President. "If the citizens of the District are to have voting representation in the Congress, a constitutional amendment is essential; statutory action alone will not suffice."

The House may vote on the bill Friday.

Norton said because of the veto threat, "the fight has now begun."

Tuesday's call was to a "high-level official," according to Norton's office. She told the White House some constitutional scholars have found no constitutional problems with the bill, which the official said he would take right to the president.

"I emphasized that the president has vetoed just one bill since entering office and questioned why he would take it on himself to prejudge the constitutionality of the bill and be perceived here and around the world as personally denying a basic right to D.C. residents who are fighting on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan and others who are paying federal taxes," Norton said.

White House spokesman Alex Conant confirmed last week the president does not support the bill. The White House said it is unconstitutional because the District of Columbia is not a state.

Tuesday's statement expands on the White House's position, saying "the Constitution limits representation in the House to representatives of states," quoting Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution that says House members are selected every two years by the "people of the several states."

"The Constitution also contains 11 other provisions expressly linking congressional representation to statehood," the statement said. "The District of Columbia is not a state. Accordingly, congressional representation for the District of Columbia would require a constitutional amendment."

Jeremy Roberts, a Salt Lake County GOP activist, has made an identical argument against the bill and said a group of Republicans in the state already has a legal brief ready to immediately challenge the constitutionality of giving the District a vote.