After getting hit hard in a U.S. House vote in early February, it seemed like procedural rules related to D.C.'s lawmaking process were going to save the D.C. Council's Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022.
But the Senate parliamentarian disagrees with the D.C. Council on how those procedural rules apply, according to a spokesperson for Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.'s nonvoting representative in Congress, and that disagreement puts the bill at risk of being struck down by Congress.
The bill, enacted without D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's signature on Nov. 21, 2022, would expand the definition of "qualified elector" in local elections "to include otherwise eligible non-citizen residents," according to the bill text.
On Monday, the D.C. Council said that the bill became law on Feb. 23, 2023.
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The U.S. Constitution includes congressional oversight of the District, allowing Congress to nullify laws voted on by the D.C. Council. However, those procedural rules for D.C. legislation state that Congress only has 30 days after the Council transmits a piece of legislation to them to veto that bill.
The U.S. House vote took place within that window, leading the GOP-controlled chamber to overturn it in a 260-173 vote. But the U.S. Senate did not take up the bill within that time period, hence the bill seemingly becoming law last week.
In a Tuesday afternoon turnaround, however, the Senate parliamentarian disagreed with the D.C. Council's judgement on the length of that window. While the House received the bill Jan. 10, the Senate did not receive it until Jan. 30.
According to Norton's spokesperson, the parliamentarian's opinion will govern, and the review period for the bill will end on March 14 -- or 30 days after the Senate received the bill.
The bad news for Local Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022 comes on the same day that Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., stated he will vote with Senate Republicans to roll back the controversial D.C. criminal code reform bill when it arrives on the Senate floor.
The House and Senate parliamentarians say Congress has 60 days to review any law dealing with criminal penalties – an additional 30 than other laws – giving the Senate until April 26 to vote on the criminal code bill.
But with the GOP likely to force a vote on that reform bill next week, and Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., currently away from the Senate receiving inpatient care for clinical depression at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Manchin's vote appears to give Republicans the majority needed to overturn the bill.
A presidential veto on Congress's joint resolution defeating the measure would allow the sweeping rewrite of D.C.'s criminal code to become law -- but with no statement from the White House on a veto as of Tuesday afternoon, the status of the Council's bill is uncertain.
As of 6 p.m. on Tuesday, the Senate has not said anything about taking up the noncitizen voting law for a vote.
