[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 182 (Wednesday, November 8, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H8601]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     STATEHOOD FOR WASHINGTON, D.C.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, Saturday is Veterans Day. That is the day we 
set aside to revere those who served in our Armed Forces, especially 
today, because all who serve are volunteers.
  Only one group of taxpaying volunteers who serve in our Armed Forces 
serve without a vote, and they are the veterans who reside in the 
Nation's Capital. They have no final vote on this House floor, though, 
of course, I vote in committee. They are not fully recognized as 
American citizens, although the District of Columbia is one of the 
oldest jurisdictions in the United States.
  D.C. veterans, therefore, are at the front of the line, demanding the 
vote in Congress and other rights granted only to residents of States.
  I thank the Members of this body who have cosponsored my bill to make 
the District of Columbia the 51st State. Each year we have beat last 
year's record in cosponsors. Today I have introduced a statehood 
resolution in tribute to the District of Columbia's 30,000 veterans as 
Veterans Day approaches on Saturday.
  The residents of your Capital City have never hesitated to serve or 
give up their lives in war for their country. They have died for their 
country without a vote in disproportionate numbers.
  World War I, more casualties than three States; World War II, more 
casualties than four States; Korean war, more casualties than eight 
States; the Vietnam war, more casualties than ten States of the Union.
  There have been three votes to go to war since I have been a Member 
of Congress: the Gulf war, the Iraq war, the Afghanistan war.
  I have gone to Arlington National Cemetery to comfort bereaved 
families from the District of Columbia who died in those wars. The 
tragedy of their sacrifice is deepened because these men died securing 
the vote for others in those nations, while they did not have the vote 
for themselves in their own nation.
  The only remedy to make our veterans whole is to give statehood to 
their city. The special urgency of our demand for statehood this 
Veterans Day is particularly pointed up by the fact that, for years 
now, District of Columbia residents have been number one, per capita, 
in taxes paid to support the Government of the United States. 
Understand that, number one above all the other States in taxes paid, 
all without a vote. That outsize contribution, yet no vote on this 
House floor, no Senators in the other body.
  That is not even a vote on D.C. matters. D.C. matters, some of them, 
have to come to this floor. The D.C. appropriation, even though D.C. 
residents raise more than $7 billion, not $1 of it is Federal money, 
yet the city's appropriation comes to this floor.
  D.C. laws, sometimes on abortion or guns, are rather controversial 
matters, but we don't bother the States when they do the same thing, 
and we certainly should have nothing to say when the residents of the 
District pass laws of their own.
  We almost got the vote on the House floor when we were paired with 
Utah, a Republican State. And the only reason we don't have that vote 
on the House floor now is that there was an attachment to the bill that 
tried to eliminate all the gun laws of the District of Columbia. 
Absurd. But we had to leave the bill on the table.
  The Founders faced a unique situation when they created the District 
of Columbia as their Capital, but they tried an 18th century remedy 
that the country has long outgrown. The Nation's Capital must not be 
under the thumb of the national government, with citizens left without 
their equal rights.

  We must erase the slander that the Framers of our country who went to 
war on the slogan of ``No Taxation Without Representation;'' that they 
would want to leave any Americans who paid taxes without equal 
representation in the United States, and especially on this floor and 
in the Senate.
  We will bring our statehood bill to the floor as soon as it is 
allowed. On this Veterans Day, I ask that we bring our D.C. statehood 
bill to the floor. Do it for District residents. But on this Veterans 
Day, I ask that you do it for the 30,000 veterans who have served you, 
who have served their country, and who deserve equal rights in each and 
every respect.

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