Taxation with Representation? DC's Fight For A Vote In Congress

The residents of Washington DC are one step closer to having a voting representative in the House of Representatives, as the Senate voted to debate a bill (62-34) authored by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT). If the bill is passed by both houses of Congress, the District of Columbia and the State of Utah would gain a seat in the House, currently composed of 435 members, in 2011. This would represent the first increase in the size of the House since New Mexico and Arizona became states one hundred years earlier in 1911 (although, as many commentators have failed to note, the House briefly grew to 437 seats when Alaska and Hawaii gained statehood, before returning to 435 following the next reapportionment). However, as The New York Times notes, many legislative, political, and legal battles loom large before the nearly 600,000 Washingtonians can drop their "Taxation Without Representation" motto.