[S.J. Res. 71] JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the Constitution to provide that the people of the District of Columbia shall be entitled to vote in Presidential elections Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States: "ARTICLE "SECTION 1. The people of the District constituting the seat of the Government shall elect a number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in the Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State. Such electors shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of all provisions of the Constitution relating to the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State. "SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to make all laws necessary to carry out this article, including laws fixing the qualifications of such electors, which shall be consistent with the provisions of the Constitution relating to electors appointed by the States. "SEC. 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress." [S.J. Res. 134] JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the Constitution to provide that the people of the District of Columbia shall be entitled to vote in presidential elections and for Delegates to the House of Representatives Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States: "SECTION 1. The people of the District constituting the seat of the Government shall elect a number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in the Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State. Such electors shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of all provisions of the Constitution relating to the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State. "SEC. 2. The people of the District constituting the seat of the Government of the United States shall elect three Delegates to the House of Representatives with such powers as the Congress, by law, shall determine. "SEC. 3. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." Senator KEFAUVER. Before calling on our first witness, I wish to place in the record a statement by the distinguished Senator from North Dakota, Mr. Langer, strongly urging the adoption of this amendment. He has always been a friend of the people of the District of Columbia and friendly toward the objectives of this resolution. Also, I shall insert a letter submitted to me from Senator Case of South Dakota, one of the cosponsors of the resolution; a statement by Senator Beall of Maryland, a cosponsor of the resolution; a letter from Senator Morse of Oregon, urging hearings, and a letter from David Kendall, special counsel to the President, stating general approval of the objectives of the proposed amendment. Further, I shall insert a letter from the Honorable Tom G. Abernethy of Mississippi, ranking majority member on the Committee on the District of Columbia of the House of Representatives. And last, I shall insert a letter from Mrs. Edward B. Morris, secretary, Federation of Citizens Associations of the District of Columbia, addressed to the Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary and relating to this subject. (The material above-referred to is as follows:) STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY SENATOR WILLIAM LANGER As a Member oF THE SENATE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS SUBCOMMITTEE Mr. Chairman, the constitutional amendment to give the District of Columbia citizens the right to vote for President and Vice President and for three Delegates to the House of Representatives has been long overdue. That is the reason why I insisted at our recent subcommittee meeting vote out any one of the three pending Senate joint resolutions introduced by Senator J. Glenn Beall of Maryland, Senator Francis Case of South Dakota, and Senator Kenneth B. Keating of New York. I wish to commend you for the promptness in which you called this open hearing in order to receive the views of those persons desiring to testify on the proposed constitutional amendment which has been redrafted with the consent of the above-named Senators. I, of course, felt that no hearings were necessary to report out a bill since we all know the right thing to do is to pass such an amendment and the quicker we report the bill to the Judiciary Committee the sooner it will be passed by the Senate this session. Mr. Chairman, it is difficult for the people of the Nation to understand fully how the government of Washington, D.C. is operated and further that Congress has to pass legislation in order for the city officials to perform so-called minor responsibilities. If Washington, D.C. needs a bridge to break the traffic jam leading into Virginia, Congress must pass a bill, or if a stadium is to be built, Congress must enact a law. For example let's take the District of Columbia stadium which is sorely needed here in the District of Columbia for many years and although they have been discussing legislation some has been passed and other legislation needs to be passed before the jigsaw puzzle can be completed. However, in the case of San Francisco, Calif., Mayor George Christopher's promise to the New York Giants baseball team was that if they came to San Francisco, the city would build them a stadium. If San Francisco wins the pennant they will play the world series games in the new San Francisco municipal stadium within two years from the date of Mayor Christopher's promise, but the District of Columbia stadium is, in a sense, still on paper. Let's take the example of bridges. It would be well if each Senator or Congressman drove over the bridges leading from the District of Columbia into Virginia during the morning and evening rush hours. If they would, they would be caught in one of the worst bumper-to-bumper traffic jams that it would be their misfortune to be caught in. I have experienced such traffic jams and I know of where I speak. It takes Congress years to pass a bill to build a bridge so necessary to break those traffic jams and the people who most suffer are civil service employees who work in the District and live in Virginia. There are many other projects which are handled more swiftly in the cities and States throughout the Nation because the city councils and the State legislatures are responsible to the people of that jurisdiction whereas the people of the District of Columbia have very little if any say in what or how Congress votes on measures affecting the District. The intolerable housing conditions with exceedingly high rents are problems that Congress must solve whereas in the States or cities they can be handled more promptly and effectively. Also the lack of proper facilities for the juvenile courts, training schools, and other measures needed to combat juvenile deliquency not to exclude the many other social welfare projects, are delayed or sidetracked because Congress must legislate for the District of Columbia. Mr. Chairman, in conclusion I wish to say that I have great hope that the proposed constitutional amendment will be only the beginning of our program in effecting the proper legislative machinery to give the District of Columbia a form of Government that will best serve its citizens and the Nation. 49566-60 Mr. Chairman, I am attaching an editorial from the Washington Evening Star of September 4, 1959 which I would like to have inserted in the printed record. [From the Washington Evening Star, Sept. 4, 1959] GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY The hearings, of necessity, must be brief. Congress is approaching the session's end. There is not much time. But we of Washington should find great satisfaction, and suddenly renewed hope, in the fact that Senate hearings on a proposal to amend the Constitution, permitting residents of this American Capital the right to vote for President, Vice President, and Representatives in Congress, have been scheduled for next Wednesday, with chances for favorable action. The list of potential witnesses, ready and willing to testify in favor of this proposition, is a long one. We know of no issue on which there seems to be greater unanimity of opinion. The fundamental but long withheld right of American residents in this city to vote for President, Vice President, and Representatives in Congress, has won general acceptance. Witnesses could fill volumes with their arguments, to be added to those already in the archives. But why? What more is there to be said on this subject? Otherwise qualified voters in a city of 850,000-the disqualification being residence in the American Capital-suffer the most wholesale and indefensible discrimination in the whole catalog of denied "civil rights." These citizens, these voteless Americans, can be given the right to representation in their Government by a simple amendment of the Constitution that corrects an understandable oversight when it was written. That amendment will not make the District a State. It will not impair, reduce or divide the wise and exclusive control by Congress over its seat of government. What it does do is to permit residents of this city to vote for President and Vice President, preserving at the same time the concept of the District of Columbia as the Federal City, but permitting its citizens representation in the electoral college they would enjoy if the District was a State; and the right to send three Delegates to the House, with such powers as Congress by legislation may choose to give them. The brevity of further hearings on that proposition would be a virtue. The need for removing a flagrant contradiction of what we stand for as a Nation is self-evident. The resolution for amendment of the Constitution should find a place on the Senate calendar and receive the favorable action of the Senate at this session. U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Hon. ESTES KEFAUVER, Chairman, Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: You and your committee are to be commended for taking up the question of giving the right of franchise to District of Columbia residents. This is the ultimate irony: That the people who reside at the seat of government for the Nation that preaches to the world about self-government are denied any voice whatever in their own government. No amount of oratory, no amount of breast-beating, no dosage of foreign aid can wipe out the blot of this hyprocrisy at home. Not property or the lack of it, not literacy or illiteracy, not the poll tax, not sex, not age but residence and residence alone denies suffrage to those who reside at the seat of government for the United States. Government for residents of the District of Columbia can never be truly government by the governed until they participate in the election of the national administration and of representation in Congress. No plan for electing a local council can provide true self-government unless the Constitution is changed. This is true because of the constitutional provision that Congress shall have exclusive legislative power for the seat of government and because the President names judges and certain administrative officials for the District. Every homerule bill, so-called, recognizes that final legislative authority resides in Congress; and, for that reason, every such bill carries language to make clear that Congress can override, amend or repeal any act or ordinance by the local council. Conversely, a vote on presidential electors and Delegates in the Congress will give residents of the seat of government a voice in their real government and anything less than that will not do so. The remedy is simple: By constitutional amendment give the people of the District of Columbia the right and the means to vote for presidential electors and for representation in the Congress. Since our method of electing President and Vice President is by means of an electoral college based upon representation in Congress, the simple way is to provide for the election of presidential electors equal to the number of electors that the District would be entitled if it were a State. The approval of Senate Joint Resolution 138 will be a big step toward the elimination of the ironic voteless status of District of Columbia residents. I hope your committee will act favorably on this resolution. Sincerely yours, FRANCIS CASE, U.S. Senate. STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY SENATOR J. GLENN BEALL ON SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 138 I have, as is generally known, been for years a strong advocate for local selfrule for the people of the District of Columbia. I still feel so inclined and have done all in my power to see this come about. Yet I have never had any grand illusions concerning this proposition because I have always believed and stated publicly that even with true home rule for District residents this would only amount to partial suffrage. The resolution being heard today would, if adopted as a constitutional amendment, be the remaining portion of the whole. To have both national representation as well as the vote for President and Vice President is imperative for the people of this area. This will not be an easy amendment to the Constitution; it will be difficult to obtain. Yet if enough support is given to this proposition and it obtains notoriety, I feel certain that its chances would be greatly enhanced. I will do all in my power to obtain its adoption and I am sure if everyone else feels as I do about it and put their shoulders to the wheel this proposition will become a reality. Concerning the merits of this proposal, I wish to recommend to the subcommittee that serious thought be given to including within the resolution the voting power for the delegates to the House. I am sure that the members of this subcommittee will, in their wisdom, determine the desirability of this point. If the subcommittee feels that such power should be determined solely by Congress, I shall not object. In any event, the need for this legislation is urgent. We of the Congress must end, once and for all, this paradoxical situation wherein those persons residing in the District of Columbia, the capital of this great Nation, are unable in any way, shape, or form to have a say in who shall govern them. I also wish to make extremely clear that this legislation is not in lieu of the home rule proposition, but is an adjunct thereto. It has been my pleasure to work hand in hand with a great national organization which has recently made this resolution one of its primary goals. If it were not for them and others with an equal amount of civic spirit we would not be here today. Therefore, I should like at this time to congratulate the junior chamber of commerce and especially its local members for giving so generously of their time and effort to obtain the Presidential vote for District residents. Mr. Chairman, as a cosponsor of this bill, as a representative of the people of the Free State of Maryland, and as a citizen who hopes to correct a gross inequity, I urge immediate favorable action on this constitutional amendment by this subcommittee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Hon. JAMES O. EASTLAND, UNITED STATES SENATE, August 6, 1959. COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, DEAR SENATOR EASTLAND: During the course of debate preceding the passage of S. 1681 on July 15, which may be found in Congressional Record, pp. 12204– 12234, you will recall that much attention was given the amendment in the nature of a substitute proposed by Senator Case, of South Dakota, which had, as its objective, the provision of national representation to the citizens of the District of Columbia. As I indicated then, it is my conviction that national representation is one part of a 3-stage process necessary and desirable to achieve as full emancipation for the District as is consistent with the responsibility which Congress should continue to exercise over the seat of Government. In accordance with that conviction, I respectfully urge that the Senate Committee on the Judiciary schedule hearings upon Senate Joint Resolution 60 and other measures designed to provide national representation through constitutional amendment, at an early date. Cordially, WAYNE MORSE. THE WHITE HOUSE, Washington, D.C., September 9, 1959. Hon. ESTES KEFAUVER, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR KEFAUVER: The President has asked me to write to you on his behalf regarding Senate Joint Resolution 138, introduced by Senator Keating of New York for himself, Senator Beall of Maryland, and Senator Case of South Dakota. The joint resolution proposes an amendment to the Constitution granting representation in the House of Representatives and in the electoral college to the District of Columbia. The 1956 Republican platform stated for the Republican Party: "We favor self-government, national suffrage, and representation in the Congress of the United States for residents of the District of Columbia." The 1956 Republican platform has been and continues to be strongly supported by the President. Sincerely yours, DAVID W. KENDALL, Special Counsel to the President. Hon. ESTES KEFAUVER, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Washington, D.C., September 8, 1959. Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR KEFAUVER: I write to commend your decision to hold hearings on the proposal to extend to the citizens of the District of Columbia the privilege of voting for President and Vice President. Since January 1943, when I first came to the Congress, I have served as a member of the Committee on the District of Columbia. That service has made me familiar with some of the problems confronting the District and its people. I believe that the only voting rights worth anything in this National Capital, which is now and must remain under the exclusive control of the Congress, is the right to vote for President and Vice President. I do not believe in and have continued to oppose such expedients as "home rule." It is well known that true "home rule" cannot be established under the present provisions of the Federal Constitution. With deference to those who hold views to the contrary, to me that provision of the Constitution which says that "The Congress shall have power to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever" over the District of Columbia, clearly and unmistakably imposes the duty upon the Congress to legislate for the District-a duty which the Congress must perform until the section requiring such is removed by appropriate constitutional amendment. I would not favor such removal, as I believe it would be injurious to the interests and welfare of a city which belongs to all of the people of the United States. I support the objective which would enable the citizens of the District to have a vote for President and Vice President, but I oppose the idea of having three delegates sitting in the House of Representatives. If delegates are to be elected, then I feel they should be limited to two, with one sitting in the Senate |