Hoyer gives green light to voting rights bill

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has firmed up plans to bring the D.C. voting rights bill to a vote next week. Hoyer had previously said the bill could come up "as early as next week."

But in a statement last night, he said voting rights supporters and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city's non-voting House member, had "strongly expressed to me that now is the time to end the injustice of denying Americans living in our nation's capital full voting representation in Congress."

Stumbling blocks remain, including controversial language attached to the bill that would repeal most local gun-control laws. The bill's champion in the Senate, Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), also said this week that he would seek to block the bill if it clears the House.

-- Ann E. Marimow