Voting Bill Is Likely To Wait

Senate Decision Isn't Expected Before Break

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) talks with Ilir Zherka, right, executive director of DC Vote, and urges supporters to keep up their spirits. (Photos By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)

Key lawmakers said yesterday that the Senate probably will not take up the D.C. vote bill before its summer break, dealing a blow to advocates who had hoped the measure could be passed quickly.

The news came as about 50 D.C. vote supporters gathered near the Dirksen Senate Office Building, chanting, "No vacation without representation!" The protest was part of a flurry of activity aimed at persuading lawmakers to squeeze in the bill before their month-long recess, scheduled to start Aug. 3.

The District's nonvoting delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), urged crowd members to keep up their spirits. She said the delay was frustrating but would not harm the bill's chances of being passed.

"I've come to ask you not to yield," Norton declared, waving a fist. "Don't yield!"

A spokesman for Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said the majority leader still considers the voting-rights bill a high priority. But "it is unlikely it will make it onto the calendar before August," spokesman Rodell Mollineau said. He said the Senate is planning to tackle bills on homeland security, children's health insurance and other matters before the break.

He said Reid's staff had contacted Republicans to see whether there was any way to jam in the bill. Don Stewart, a spokesman for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said "it would be a shock" if the measure came up in the next week.

The voting-rights bill was crafted to win bipartisan support by adding two seats to the House: one for the overwhelmingly Democratic District and the other for the state next in line to pick up an extra representative. That is currently Utah, a Republican bastion.

The bill cleared the House in April and a Senate committee last month, giving D.C. voting-rights activists their biggest victories in decades. They had hoped that the momentum would carry through to a summer Senate vote.

But McConnell opposes the bill, and the White House has threatened a veto. Critics say the measure is unconstitutional, noting that House members are supposed to come from "the several states" and that the District is not a state.

Politics is also a factor, with some Republicans concerned that the bill could lead to the District eventually picking up two powerful senators.

Lobbyists for the bill said this week that they were optimistic they finally had the 60 votes to overcome a possible filibuster. Reid, however, told Congressional Quarterly that he had talked to Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), the bill's chief Senate sponsor, and learned "they aren't quite ready" to take the measure to the floor.

"I am confident 60 senators will vote to move to the D.C. voting rights bill and reject a filibuster. I am ready to bring this bill to a vote as soon as Senate floor time is available," Lieberman said yesterday in a statement.