I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 597 
To restore the Federal electoral rights of the residents of the District of 
Columbia, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 9, 2011 
Mr. ROHRABACHER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Committees 
on Oversight and Government Reform and the Judiciary, for a period to 
be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
concerned 
A BILL 
To restore the Federal electoral rights of the residents of 
the District of Columbia, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘District of Columbia 
Voting Rights Restoration Act of 2011’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
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(1) There is no reason, either historically or by 
virtue of law, why the people of the District of Co-
lumbia, the capital of the United States of America, 
should not have full voting representation in the 
Congress of the United States. 
(2) Article I, section 8, clause 17 of the Con-
stitution of the United States, which authorized the 
creation of the District of Columbia, provides only 
that the Congress shall have ‘‘exclusive legislation in 
all cases whatsoever’’ over that District. 
(3) The same clause of the Constitution pro-
vides that Congress ‘‘shall exercise like authority 
over’’ other Federal territories that have been pur-
chased from the States for Federal purposes. Resi-
dents of other Federal enclaves, though also denied 
voting rights after becoming subject to exclusive 
Federal jurisdiction, have had restored their right to 
vote for and serve as elected Federal officials from 
their respective States which ceded the Federal en-
claves to the United States. 
(4) Congress has exercised its authority to reg-
ulate Federal elections under article I, section 4 of 
the Constitution to set the legal requirements that 
States must follow in establishing Congressional dis-
tricts. Congress has also exercised this authority to 
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require States to allow United States citizens who 
are former residents, and their children who are 
United States citizens, who are living overseas to 
vote in Federal elections in the previous State of res-
idence, notwithstanding the fact that such former 
residents and their children may have no intention 
of returning or establishing residence in that State, 
and notwithstanding the fact that such citizens are 
not subject to the laws of that State, including tax 
laws. 
(5) The entire territory of the current District 
of Columbia was ceded to the United States by the 
State of Maryland, one of the original 13 States of 
the United States. The portion of the original Dis-
trict of Columbia ceded to the United States by the 
Commonwealth of Virginia was returned to the au-
thority of that state in 1846, and the people who 
now reside in that area vote as citizens of the Com-
monwealth of Virginia. 
(6) The Supreme Court of the United States 
has found that the cession of legislative authority 
over the territory that became the District of Colum-
bia by the States of Maryland and Virginia did not 
remove that territory from the United States, and 
that the people who live in that territory are entitled 
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to all the rights, guarantees, and immunities of the 
Constitution that they formerly enjoyed as citizens 
of those States (O’Donoghue v. United States, 289 
U.S. 516 (1933); Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244 
(1901)). Among those guarantees are the right to 
equal protection of the laws and the right to partici-
pate, equally with other Americans, in a Republican 
form of government. 
(7) Since the people who lived in the territory 
that now makes up the District of Columbia once 
voted in Maryland as citizens of Maryland, and Con-
gress by adoption of the Organic Act of 1801 sev-
ered the political connection between Maryland and 
the District of Columbia by statute, Congress has 
the power by statute to restore Maryland state citi-
zenship rights, including Federal electoral rights, 
that it took away by enacting the Organic Act of 
1801. 
SEC. 3. RESTORATION OF RIGHT OF DISTRICT OF COLUM-
BIA RESIDENTS TO PARTICIPATE AS MARY-
LAND RESIDENTS IN CONGRESSIONAL ELEC-
TIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-
sion of law, for purposes of representation in the House 
of Representatives and Senate, the right of the people of 
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