The price of democracy: weaponry

by | Mar 3, 2009


A recurrent game in Washington DC is trying to fix the fact that DC itself has no Congressman (it sends a non-voting delegate).  Initiatives to give the capital a national representative come and go, but never succeed.  And so it has come to pass again:

Legislation to give the District of Columbia voting representation in the House has been pulled from Wednesday’s calendar because of concerns about Republican efforts to use the bill to wipe out many of the District’s gun laws.

A key House aide confirmed that the bill will be pulled from consideration, at least for Wednesday. The aide stressed that negotiations are continuing and the bill could come up in the future.

Republicans want to add the language on D.C.’s gun laws to the bill.  Democratic leaders don’t want that to happen, but many of their centrist members from Republican districts would vote to support the amendment to avoid the ire of the National Rifle Association.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said adding the gun language could cost enough Democratic votes that the entire bill would fail.

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