Washington – The House will vote on a bill Thursday to admit Washington, DC, as the 51st state, though the measure is likely to fail in the divided Senate.
For proponents of the bill, the state of DC is a civil rights issue. The district has a population of over 700,000 people, larger than the population of Wyoming or Vermont. But while these two states have two senators and one representative in the House, DC has no voting representation in Congress. Eleanor Holmes Norton represents DC in Congress as a non-voting delegate.
State advocates also point out that DC pays more in federal taxes than 21 states and more per capita than any state, according to 2019 IRS data. The district is also diverse, with a population of 46% black and mostly non-white. If admitted, it would be the first state with a black population of plurality.
The legislation, entitled HR 51, would create the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, named after Frederick Douglass. It would give DC two U.S. senators and a voting representative in the House, just like any other state. The bill would also cordon off the White House, the U.S. Capitol, and the National Mall to continue under federal control as the seat of the U.S. government.
The House last year passed a DC state measure by a vote of 232 to 180, but did not get a vote in the Senate, which was then controlled by Republicans. While Democrats now have a 50-seat majority, most legislation requires 60 votes to advance, and this bill is unlikely to get the support of ten Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has pledged to take the measure to a vote, but a motion to move forward with the legislation would almost certainly fail.
Many DC state supporters are pushing the Senate to eliminate the filibuster, which would allow it to move forward with measures by simple majority. But that would require the support of the 50 Senate Democrats, with Vice President Kamala Harris voting the tie. Two Democrats say they will not support it, but condemning the prospects of HR 51.
At a news conference promoting HR 51 on Wednesday, Norton expressed confidence that the legislation has a chance in the Senate, saying he “believes the filibuster is on its way out.”
Appearing at the press conference on Wednesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the Senate “will have the decision to make a good judgment” when the legislation arrives.
“We believe in a good policy for our country and we expect the Senate to act on behalf of the people,” Hoyer said.
Dr. Ravi Perry, chair of the political science department at Howard University and a member of the board of DC Vote, a state advocacy group, noted in an interview with CBS News that many of the black families living in district have been here for generations. Perry noted that many of Washington’s iconic federal buildings, such as the White House and Capitol, were built by black workers and slaves, but the descendants of these workers living in the district do not enjoy all the privileges represented by those. ” lighthouses of democracy “. . “
“They look at those buildings built by black people, built by slaves and they see hope,” Perry said of the district’s black residents. “And they know every day that they wake up that they don’t have the same rights [as other Americans]. “
Congress has exclusive jurisdiction over Washington, which means local legislation, including the DC budget, must be passed by Congress. This can have controversial side effects when DC residents make decisions that Congress blocks or overrides. DC voters approved Initiative 71 in 2014, which allows adults to grow, own and give away marijuana. However, Congress has blocked the district from preventing the sale of marijuana by a pilot’s adherence to DC’s credit bill to prevent it from using funds to legalize or regulate the sale of cannabis.
The idea of DC status is growing in popularity across the country. A March poll conducted by Data for Progress and the progressive defense coalition Democracy for All 2021 Action and first shared with CBS News found that 54% of likely voters think DC should be a state.
Proponents also point to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as a reason why the district should be admitted as a state. Unlike other National Guard units, the DC National Guard does not fall under local control and can only be mobilized by the White House. Lawmakers have wondered why it took so long for the National Guard to act during the assault on the Capitol on January 6th. If Washington, DC, had received local control of its National Guard, the Guard could have been deployed sooner.
The struggle for the state of DC is not new: it has existed since the creation of the country, with both parties leading the charge at different times. But the modern struggle for statehood is led by Democrats. The district is very democratic: 92% of its residents supported President Biden in the 2020 election. Senate Democrats introduced a bill complementary to the House measure in January, which has 38 co-sponsors in the Senate , including Schumer.
The district’s partisan balance is, in large part, the reason DC’s admission as a state generates so much opposition from Republicans. If admitted as a state, it is very likely that both senators and a DC representative will be Democrats, further tilting the balance of Congress in favor of Democrats.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been one of the most vocal opponents of the DC state, which he referred to in 2019 as “full-scale socialism.” In his speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention, McConnell argued that Democrats wanted to admit DC, which he called “the swamp itself,” to impose his agenda.
“With two more Liberal senators, we can’t undo the damage they’ve done,” McConnell said.
House Republicans also oppose DC’s admission as a state. At a House Oversight Committee hearing on the bill last month, ranking member James Comer said “the state of DC is a key part of the radical left’s agenda to reform states. United “.
The bill is not expected to win any Republican votes in the House. The House Oversight Committee advanced the bill last week with a 25 to 19 vote, fully following the party line.
Some Republicans have suggested backing the district in Maryland as a compromise, which would theoretically provide district residents with a voting representative in the House, but would not add two new senators. Senator Mitt Romney expressed support for the proposal Tuesday.
But this solution is unpopular among residents of the district and Maryland. In a statement on retrocession in February, Norton noted that 86% of DC residents voted for the state in a 2016 referendum.
“The retrocession would be incompatible with this referendum vote and the district’s pursuit of self-determination,” Norton said. The petition for a referendum was sent to Congress, which took no action in this regard.
Representatives of the Maryland Congress also oppose the retrocession.
“The people of DC have made it very clear that they want self-determination. It’s supposed to be a democracy,” Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen told reporters on Wednesday.
State advocates argue that the partisan balance of the district should not be a factor in the decision. They believe that all Americans should be concerned that 700,000 of their fellow citizens do not have voting representation in Congress and that they want to be statewide in the name of equal rights.
“We’re not talking about giving people rights simply because of what their descriptive characteristics can be, we’re saying they deserve those rights because they’re American, too,” Perry said.