[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 164 (Wednesday, December 19, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8204-S8205]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LIEBERMAN (for himself, Mr. Durbin, Mrs. Murray, and Mrs. 
        Boxer):
  S. 3696. A bill to provide for the admission of the State of New 
Columbia into the Union; to the Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs.

[[Page S8205]]

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the New Columbia 
Admissions Act that will create a 51st State from the populated 
portions of Washington, D.C., giving these more than 600,000 
disenfranchised Americans the voice they deserve in our national 
government. The United States is the only democracy in the world that 
denies voting representation to the people who live in its capital 
city. It is long past time to end this unjust and embarrassing 
distinction.
  I am not the only Senator who feels this way--Senators Durbin, Boxer, 
and Murray join me in cosponsoring this bill today. My friend Senator 
Inouye had planned to cosponsor this bill as he was a strong supporter 
of the District's right to have congressional representation.
  Under this bill, there would still be Federal district called 
Washington, D.C., which would be under the control of Congress as the 
Constitution mandates. But it would be a smaller area encompassing the 
White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court and the National Mall, 
where few people actually live. The rest of the current District of 
Columbia--diverse business districts and residential neighborhoods that 
are home to more than half a million U.S. citizens--would become a new 
State.
  This is completely in accord with the principles and mandates of the 
Constitution and our Founding Fathers. Indeed, I think it is worth 
remembering why our Founding Fathers created a Federal district in the 
first place.
  After the Revolutionary War, Philadelphia, PA, was the capital of the 
government formed by the Articles of Confederation. That Congress met 
in what we now know as Independence Hall in Philadephia.
  In 1783, a mob of Revolutionary War veterans besieged Independence 
Hall, demanding promised payments for their service during the war. 
Congress asked the governor of Pennsylvania, John Dickinson, to call 
out the militia to defend the capital, but he sided with the veterans 
and refused.
  Congress had to flee to Princeton, NJ.
  This failure of a state government to protect the national government 
became a major concern of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and it 
was decided the Constitution must create a Federal district that could 
be controlled and protected by the new Federal government.
  But Article One, Section Eight of the Constitution, which created the 
Federal district, did not order a particular location. It only said 
only that it may not exceed ``10 miles square''--or 100 square miles.
  The Residence Act of 1790 gave President Washington authority to pick 
the final site of the capital, and the site of the current Washington 
D.C. was chosen as a result of a compromise between Thomas Jefferson 
and Alexander Hamilton.
  When John Adams moved into the White House in 1800, Washington, D.C. 
had a population of just 3,210 people--in a Nation of roughly 5 
million. Even then the founders were concerned about voting rights for 
residents of the new capital. In the early days before the capital was 
fully established, its residents were allowed to vote in Maryland or 
Virginia. There were proposals to guarantee their suffrage going 
forward but unfortunately they did not get enacted amid the press to 
establish the new government. Certainly, though, it would have been 
unimaginable to the founders that a population of more than half a 
million in our capital city should be disenfranchised in the national 
legislature.
  Yet that is the current reality. Now we are a Nation of more than 300 
million and Washington, D.C. is a thriving community of 618,000 people. 
That's more people than Wyoming has and about the same as Vermont and 
North Dakota have, which, of course, have full representation in 
Congress. Acccording to the U.S. Census, Washington, D.C. is growing 
faster than all 50 States. Demographers expect it will only get bigger 
in the years to come because much of that growth has been with young 
people who want to raise families in the District.
  The District of Columbia already functions as a state in many 
respects--indeed the Federal Government treats it as a State for 
purposes of most Federal programs.
  More important, the residents of the District of Columbia have all 
the responsibilities of U.S. citizenship. They pay more Federal income 
tax per capita than residents of any state; D.C. residents and 
businesses send on average $20 billion to the Federal treasury each 
year. D.C. residents must serve on Federal juries and male residents 
must register for Selective Service. More than 190,000 D.C. residents 
have served in the military in wartime and about 1,700 have died for 
our country in the wars of the last century alone. All this occurred 
while the District's residents were denied voting representation in 
Congress.
  The current inequity has even been noted by international bodies, 
including the United Nations Human Rights Commission, as a possible 
violation of international human rights accords.
  It is long past time to give these American citizens who have chosen 
Washington as their home full participation in our democracy. People 
who live in D.C. are, of course, as American as people who live 
throughout our country--teachers, firefighters, doctors, janitors, 
parents, children, veterans, retirees. Why do their contributions to 
our democracy--financial and otherwise--merit rights and representation 
any less than those of their fellow citizens in the 50 states?
  In sum, nothing in the Constitution prevents Congress from ceding 
this territory to a new State. There will still be a Federal district 
under Congressional control and protected by Federal authorities.
  The voters of this new state will have the same rights we give voters 
in every other State, including those seven small states with 
populations under 1 million. If the idea seems strange, remember that 
many also once could not imagine full voting rights for women or racial 
minorities. It is the nature of civil rights that the disenfranchised 
must fight to gain acceptance of rights that, in retrospect, seem 
morally compelled and beyond question. We must right this injustice 
toward the residents of the District just as Congress historically has 
righted other voting injustices that stretched back to the very 
founding of the Nation.
  I will soon leave Congress after having had the great privilege of 
serving here for 24 years. Securing full voting rights for the 600,000 
Americans who live in the District of Columbia is unfinished business, 
not just for me, but for the United States of America.

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