On its face, it seems like the 110
th Congress made fairly significant progress on advancing civil rights issues in 2007. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) passed through the House, the District of Columbia Voting Rights Act made it farther than it ever had before, and the House passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act as a remedy to the egregious Supreme Court decision in
Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber.
But, these positive outcomes were marked by shortsighted opposition, filibusters, and numerous veto threats by a White House administration that has never been shy about opposing most civil rights bills.
For the DC Voting Rights Act in particular, 2007 was a frustrating year. This bill boasted bipartisan support and a chance to grant the District of Columbia, full of federal tax-paying citizens, voting representation in the House for the first time in history.
Senator Mitch McConnell, R. Ky., led a filibuster against the bill, making ignominious history by helping Congress block the first voting rights bill since segregation. The Senate fell three votes short of the necessary 60 it needed to bring the bill to a vote.
Unfortunately, this is only one of many examples of near misses Congress has dealt the civil rights community in the past year. Every year, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights releases a voting record highlighting the accomplishments and failures of Congress on a sampling of bills, of which the DC Voting Rights Act is cited as a near miss, but a miss nonetheless.
As the civil rights community looks back on 2007 and forward to 2008, it hopes that Congress will follow through on the path it has already begun in enacting civil rights legislation.