Madam Speaker, it is a disgrace, a blot on our Nation that the citizens of our Capital do not have a voice in Congress.

Whatever technical issues there may be with respect to rectifying this problem, we must never lose sight of the fact that our democracy is permanently stained by the disenfranchisement of a large group of our citizens who pay taxes, serve in our wars, work in our government, and bear all the responsibilities, but do not have all the rights of citizenship.

Whether you took a cab to work today or rode the Metro or bought a cup of coffee or walked down the sidewalk or were protected by a police officer, your safety, your livelihood, every aspect of your life was made possible by people who have no vote in our democratic society. There is no excuse for that.

Now, we have heard from people who say, well, we should change this, but let's amend the Constitution. We have tried that. Very difficult.

We have heard from people who say, well, we should change this, but let's do it another way that will take forever and that haven't worked. This way we are told, doing it by statute, giving the District of Columbia a vote in the House by statute, is unconstitutional.

Well, it is not unconstitutional. The fact is the Constitution says that the Congress shall have power to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such District, as may, by cession of particular States, become the seat of the Government of the United States. Exclusive jurisdiction. Very plenary power.

The Constitution also says in Article III, discussing the powers of Federal courts: The judicial power shall extend to controversies between citizens of different States, so-called diversity jurisdiction.

One of the earlier cases cited by the Supreme Court was that citizens of the District of Columbia have standing to go into Federal court and sue citizens of a different State, of any State under diversity jurisdiction, because the District of Columbia, for that purpose at least, is considered a State, and the Supreme Court was very clear on this. And if the District of Columbia is a State for purposes of diversity jurisdiction under Article III of the Constitution, there is no reason why Congress cannot take advantage of that fact and legislate under its exclusive jurisdiction clause that the District of Columbia is a State for purposes of representation in the House of Representatives.

The judicial cases are fairly clear. We have ample constitutional authority to do this, and we should take that up. Let those who are opposed to American citizens having taxation without representation, let those who are supportive of American citizens be subjected to taxation without representation, let those who are opposed to American citizens having the full rights of citizens, let them go to court and argue that it is unconstitutional. Let us assert our authority, because we believe it is constitutional. The courts will ultimately decide if the Bush administration continues to oppose this bill and has threatened to veto.

What I don't hear from the administration is any concern about the injustice of depriving D.C. citizens of the right to vote, which speaks volumes about the administration's hostility to voting rights.

If we are to have the audacity to hold ourselves out to the world as a beacon of freedom and democracy, if we want to lecture other countries about the importance of freedom and democracy, as this Congress and the President regularly seek to do, we need to clean up our own House. I urge passage of this bill.