After a long summer and waiting out the Senate’s ‘vacation without representation’ the DC Voting Rights Act (S. 1257) is due for a cloture vote Tuesday at 2:30 PM. This is a make-or-break moment for this bill, we’ll need 60 votes to be sure to beat any filibuster attempts.

What can you do to help? Glad you asked!

1. Attend the DC Vote rally on Capitol Hill on Monday, September 17th. It’s from 11:00 to 12:30 at the Dirksen Senate Office Building at Constitution Avenue, NE and 1st Street, NE. You can RSVP with our friends at DC for Democracy by clicking here. I’ll be there and I hope you can be too.

2. National Call in Day for DC Voting Rights: Also on Monday, September 17th there is a national call in day to the Senate to urge the passage of the DC Voting Rights Act. The number is 1.866.346.3008 between the hours of 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM EDT. Targeted Senators include:

• Arlen Specter (R-PA)
• Richard Lugar (R-IN)
• Gordon Smith (R-OR)
• Sam Brownback (R-KS)
• John McCain (R-AZ)
• Thad Cochran (R-MS)

If you need some talking points, Marc Fisher had a great list of reasons for Senators to vote for this bill in his column earlier this week:

Giving D.C. Residents the Vote: It’s the Right Thing to Do

Tuesday will be an historic day for DC Voting rights - please do what you can make sure it’s also a day of celebration.

Vote on DC Bill Likely Not Happening in August

The Post reports today, what we found out yesterday before the rally. That the Senate will likely not take up the DC Voting Rights Act before the August recess. Congresswoman Norton assured everyone that this will not affect the chances of passage…but we should still push to get it on the agenda before the break.

DC Shadow Senator Mike Brown had the line of the day:
“No Vacation Without Representation!”

(Photo by Keith Ivey)

According to our friends at DC Vote, Senator Lieberman has announced that the mark-up in the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will very likely be Wednesday, June 13 at 10:00 AM in 342 Dirksen. This information is subject to change, so check back for updates.

They also ask to keep up pressure on Senator Susan Collins from Maine, as she is seen as a swing vote on the committee. How Collins votes on this bill next week will be very telling on a number of levels.

First, she’s seen as a very “gettable” Republican, so it will be an instant barometer of support from moderate GOP Senators - as will the votes of Warner, Voinovich and Coleman. So, if you know anyone in Maine, please send them to http://www.freeandequaldc.com

Second, it will say a lot about the actual clout Senator Lieberman has on this bill. Lieberman has endorsed Collins for re-election in 2008 over Maine Democratic Congressman Tom Allen (who did vote for the bill in the House and has been a friend to the District). If Lieberman can’t deliver Collin’s vote, then it calls into question what votes he can actually deliver. On this issue, Lieberman is a good friend to have, so let’s hope he can close the deal on some GOP members.

See you at the hearing next week….

Yesterday there was a hearing in Lieberman’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. For anyone who follows this stuff, it was your standard fare. A lot of the same testimony from the same people.

I really liked Norton’s testimony. This is woman was definately not going through the motions. She even brought up the Colbert Report’s joke about her and Tom Davis having an affair. (Here’s the clip from the show.) Jack Kemp was awesome yesterday, and I think he will play a key role in getting the fence sitting Republicans to side with the bill.

I wanted to hear how GOP Senators Collins, Warner, and Coleman were going come down on the bill, but alas that did not happen. I was especially curious about Collins as Lieberman endorsed her and is raising money for her - much to the chagrin of the blogosphere.

Liberman says they’ll be a mark-up sometime after Memorial Day recess. Stay tuned…

(Note: Metroblogging DC is having a contest for a caption for the photo above. More details here.)

After clearing the House two weeks ago by a vote of 244 to 177, the DC Voting Rights Act will be introduced in the Senate today by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT). The fact that Senator Hatch is on board as a co-sponsor is great news, as he always was a bit of an unknown and could have single-handedly killed the bill in the Senate.

To keep the momentum going, we need to make sure that Senators here in Washington are hearing from their constituents back home about DC voting rights. The web site FreeAndEqualDC.com has been updated to now send messages in support of this bill to the U.S. Senate. If you have not yet done so, please take a minute a send a message to your friends, family, and co-workers urging them to take action at: http://www.freeandequaldc.com

It’s great that things are moving forward and I’ll be in touch soon with more ways on how you can help get this through the Senate. Remember, there are now less than 100 people standing in the way of DC voting rights - together we can make it happen!

Also, The Hill published my letter:

http://thehill.com/letters/d.c.-voting-rights-bill-isnt-willful-constitution-breach-2007-04-30.html