DC Kept Waiting on Voting Rights Bill

Without a vote by early May, D.C. Del. fears momentum for the proposal will die

Without a vote soon, it might be another year before the dream of a D.C. Voting Rights Bill could put into action. 

That's a chance D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) doesn't want to take.  "As she hinted during a roundtable interview with local bloggers, she believes Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has hesitated on the legislation, not wanting to give up the gun amendment for fear of what a negative NRA score would mean for the [conservative Democratic] Blue Dogs," DCist reports.

The gun amendment, which the Senate attached to the vote bill, would do away with the District's gun laws, prevent the city from imposing any future restrictions on gun ownership and make District residents the only people in the U.S. allowed to cross state lines to purchase guns.

Norton noted that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has wanted to scrub the amendment -- something that she herself sees as a threat to security in Washington.  Hoyer, though, is "conflicted about the Blue Dogs," Norton told DCist and other bloggers.

But more than that, Norton fears that time is not on the District's side.  As she told Roll Call yesterday: "We’ll lose the opportunity to get the vote because we’ve run out of time."

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