Holder urges voting rights for D.C.

washington » U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder made one of his strongest statements in support of District of Columbia voting rights Friday in his first appearance after announcing he would step down.

In remarks to the annual legislative conference of the Congressional BlackCaucus, Holder vowed that the Justice Department would continue its fight to quash states’ restrictive voter-ID laws and redistricting boundaries that disenfranchise voters.

Near the end of his speech, for the first time in several years he included Washington’s lack of voting representation in Congress in that discussion.

“When I talk about all who want tobe heardinthe halls of the federal government, I am talking about the more than 600,000 taxpayers who, like me — like me — live in the District of Columbia and still havenovoting representation in Congress,” Holder said.

“We pay our taxes. We die in the army. We have a great representative, andwe do not have voting rights. It is long past time for every citizen to be afforded his or her full responsibilities and full rights.”

Holder’s comments were arguably his most forceful on the topic during six years as the nation’s top law enforcement official.

However, in raising the issue a day after he said he would step down, he also followed in a tradition of U.S. presidents and members of Congress who have spoken most passionately about the issue late in their time in Washington, when the comments could have little effect.

Holder, who lived inWashington for decades before taking the helm at Justice, cosigned a 2007 letterwith other lawyers supporting D.C. voting rights legislation.