Conservative firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has put forward a bill that would impose a citizenship requirement for voter registration in Washington D.C., and effectively ban illegal immigrants from voting.
The draft bill, a copy of which has been obtained by The Epoch Times, is titled the “American Confidence in Elections: District of Columbia Voter Identification Act.”
Ms. Greene’s bill seeks to revive that effort and give it legislative force by amending the Help America Vote Act of 2002, establishing photo identification requirements for voting in D.C. elections, and requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in D.C. elections.
The D.C. Council passed the Local Resident Voting Rights Act in October 2022 after years of similar efforts floundering. The measure was opposed by Republicans on Capitol Hill, who argued that approving the legislation would let illegal immigrants vote in local D.C. elections.
Mr. Comer and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) introduced a joint resolution in January formally disapproving the D.C. Council measure.
‘A Pretty Spectacular Juxtaposition’
While there was no immediate reaction to Ms. Greene’s bill by opponents, D.C. Council member Brianne K. Nadeau, who introduced the Local Resident Voting Rights Act that Greene’s bill seeks to undo, earlier criticized Congressional efforts to nix the measure.At the time, Ms. Nadeau accused Republicans of seeking “disenfranchisement” by opposing the measure.
“Disenfranchisement is on full display right now,“ Ms. Nadeau said. ”We’re expanding voting rights here while our autonomy is under attack. It’s a pretty spectacular juxtaposition.”
Ms. Nadeau argued that residents of the District of Columbia deserve “full autonomy and representation” and that it’s unacceptable for Congress to make decisions about the city that affect the lives of its residents.
Statehood
In April 2021, the House passed H.R. 51, the D.C. statehood bill along party lines with zero Republican support.Democrats have been advocating statehood for the U.S. capital for decades, arguing that it would fix a centuries-old wrong centering on the notion that D.C. residents are taxed but have no elected representatives to intervene in Congress on their behalf.
“This country was founded on the principles of no taxation without representation and consent of the governed. But D.C. residents are taxed without representation and cannot consent to the laws under which they as American citizens must live,” said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s nonvoting delegate, on the House floor ahead of the vote.
President Joe Biden, too, has repeatedly expressed support for D.C. statehood and urged lawmakers in Congress to pass the Democrat bill.
Republicans, by contrast, have argued that the D.C. statehood bill was less about representation but more about pushing progressive policies.
“This is not about a balance of power, this is about more power,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said ahead of the vote.
“This is about government-run health care, a 93 trillion [dollar] Green New Deal, packing the Supreme Court, higher taxes, and a bigger, less efficient form of government,” she said at the time.
Mr. Comer, who also opposed the bill, called it a “blatant power grab” by Democrats as the District of Columbia has in the past overwhelmingly voted blue.
“I wonder, listening to the debate, if our friends on the other side of the aisle would be so passionate if Washington, D.C., were 90 percent Republican as [opposed to] 90 percent Democrat,” he said at the time.
“H.R. 51 goes against the Founding Fathers’ intent, and is unconstitutional, impractical and a blatant power grab.”