In response to the failure of today’s cloture vote for the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007 (S. 1257), People For the American Way Public Policy Director Tanya Clay House released the following statement:

“DC residents serve in the military, they pay taxes – thousands of them actually work for the United States government, yet they have no vote in Congress. And the greatest irony is that they live in the very shadow of the Capitol Dome. It’s time to put an end to this historic injustice, and let the people of the District of Columbia send a full voting representative to Congress.

“Americans fought and died for the right to elect their own government, a government of the people, by the people and for the people. That our democracy has allowed DC residents to live without voting representation for over 200 years is a tragedy.

“It’s hard to fathom that the very politicians who call Washington, DC their home away from home can turn their backs on voting representation for the nearly 600,000 residents of our nation’s capital. The citizens of Washington, DC have suffered far too long. People For the American Way, with our allies at DC Vote and in the DC voting rights coalition, will not rest until DC residents have full voting representation on Capitol Hill.”