This is a class blog for the students of POLSCI 426: Congressional Politics at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

House Approves A Full D.C. Seat

This article announces proposed legislation to add two seats to the U.S. House: one for D.C. and one for Utah, the next state in line up for a representative. The bill is greatly supported by the Democrats. Many of the Republican representatives, however, argue the bill is unconstitutional due to the constitutional requirement that reps come from states. The White House has threatened a veto on the bill and it is suspected that it will eventually end up in court. All the same, "Supporters called the bill's passage their biggest victory since 1978".
I think this is very important legislation and it will be very interesting to see how it all pans out. The article makes a very good point that a rep for D.C. would lead to increased representation for many people, not to mention multimillionnaires. I think it's pretty ironic that our nation's center for politics is struggling for increased representation.

5 comments:

Jsobie said...

This bill proves that the Constitution is subject to interpretation. Because the representation of the house is capped at 435 representatives in the Constitution, the Republicans can argue that our founding fathers did not intend for additional representation. While that is true, the Democrats should attempt to change the Constitution because if this ends up in court, there is nothing the court can do about it. Also, I would think the Republicans would support this bill because they would most likely gain another seat, Utah because it is slightly Democratic. I am confused as to why they don't.

deborahmweigel said...

a d.c. seat would be quite interesting. The diversity there is unseen in any other part of the country.

walker sc ranger said...

Is this even constitutional?? Have they lost their minds??? this is where a drug abuser was elected mayor repeatedly.

walker sc ranger said...

BTW.. the House is not capped at 435 in the Constitution, that is a federal law...

Alan Finley said...

it will be interesting to see if this bill actually goes any farther. d.c. is very diverse, as mentioned earlier. it's interesting because it is not a state and therefore isn't represented, but maryland wants nothing to with d.c. which complicates the issue further

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