As the Democrats Dither

The District's voters wait, and wait, and . . .

AN EARLY TEST of the courage and leadership of the new Democratic-controlled Congress will come on the question of extending full voting rights in the House of Representatives to the District of Columbia. Legislation to do just that fizzled in the final days of the past Congress as Republican leaders, seized by apathy and deaf to logic, left town without calling a vote. Now it is for Democrats to explain why citizens of the capital of the free world are disenfranchised in the halls of Congress.

They have scheduled a vote today on a half-measure that grants a partial voice to the District's delegate, as well as to delegates from U.S. territories. The resolution would allow the delegates to vote on some important House business, including amendments to legislation, but would withhold the right to vote on a bill's final passage. If adopted, it would restore the status quo in effect before the Republicans altered it 12 years ago but leave the District consigned to inferior status. It is, in other words, better than nothing, but it is decidedly not good enough. And it muddies the waters by lumping the District, whose residents pay federal income taxes, together with Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands, whose (vastly fewer) residents do not.

The best and most comprehensive solution in sight is the one the Republicans spurned so heedlessly in the past Congress. Embodied in a bipartisan measure co-sponsored by Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) and D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), it would add two full-voting seats to Congress -- one for the mostly Democratic District and one for mostly Republican Utah, which just missed getting an extra seat after the last census. That's about as nonpartisan as you could wish for (although only Utah would gain an electoral vote).

Mr. Davis believes that several dozen Republicans would support his approach should it ever see the light of day in a floor vote. And Democrats, who have every reason to grant the District a fully empowered representative in the House, should also be on board. So why is the Democratic leadership dithering?