In the original publication of this article, footnote markers in Table 1 were incorrect and not corresponding to the correct footnotes. Below is a replication of Table 1 with the corrected information.
The editorial team apologizes for this error.
The delegate’s second-class parliamentary powers
Table 1 Long description
The table consists of three columns: Parliamentary Right, Can It Be Exercised by a Member of Congress?, and Can It Be Exercised by the D.C. Delegate to the House of Representatives?
For the following rights, both a Member of Congress and the D.C. Delegate can exercise them (Yes/Yes):
* Make regular parliamentary motions.
* Sponsor and cosponsor legislation.
* Serve as impeachment manager.
* Sit on committees.
* Sit on conference committees.
* Chair committees.
* Vote in committee.
* Debate on the House floor.
For the right to ‘Vote on amendments in Committee of the Whole’, a Member of Congress can (Yes), and the D.C. Delegate can (Yes, but with an automatic revote if the delegates’ votes are decisive).
For the following rights, a Member of Congress can exercise them, but the D.C. Delegate cannot (Yes/No):
* Vote on final passage of legislation (No, pursuant to the U.S. Constitution art. I, section 2, cl. 1).
* Vote for Speaker of the House (No, pursuant to the U.S. Constitution art. 1, section 2, cl. 5).
* Vote to declare the office of Speaker vacant (No, pursuant to House practice).
* Make a motion to reconsider (No, pursuant to House practice).
* Vote on impeachment (No, pursuant to House practice).
* Sign a discharge petition (No, pursuant to House practice). For Members of Congress, the signature remains valid even if a Member dies or resigns.
Notes:
a) Delegate Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) served as a manager for the second Trump impeachment.
b) However, no delegate in the modern era has been appointed to the Appropriations, Rules, or Budget Committees, and “party leaders typically assigned the delegates only to committees relevant to their local constituencies, and not to the power committees or other committees that grapple with broader national issues” (Lewallen and Sparrow 2018, 746).
c) The last Delegate to chair a standing committee in Congress was William Henry Harrison in 1799 (Cama 2022).
d) The D.C. Circuit affirmed this arrangement in Michel v. Anderson, 14 F.3d 623. A revote without the delegates has happened eight times—three times in the 103rd Congress, once in the 111th Congress, and four times in the 118th Congress (see also Hudiburg 2022, 2–3).
e) Numerous close votes on the House floor might have had a different outcome were the nonvoting members able to vote. In the 19th Congress, for example, Indian Removal was nearly defeated by a substitute amendment, which garnered a tie vote, 98-98. If that substitute passed, the Trails of Tears may never have occurred (Remini 2006, 120; for other examples, see Mamet 2021, 409n42).
f) The delegates could not vote on the failed resolution to oust Speaker Joseph Cannon on March 17, 1910, nor on the successful resolution to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy on October 3, 2023.
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