[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 35 (Tuesday, February 26, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H2109]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   STATEHOOD FOR DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, tomorrow, our residents who are fortunate 
to live in our Nation's Capital will come to the Capitol as part of 
their Lobby Day to ask the Congress to pass the D.C. statehood bill.
  Most Americans are unaware that the Americans who live in their 
Nation's Capital have the fewest rights of any Americans. That is at 
the same time that those 700,000 residents who live in the Nation's 
Capital pay the highest taxes per capita, higher than the taxes of the 
residents of any State.
  As you might imagine, the residents of the District of Columbia are 
seeking to become the 51st State of the Union. I am pleased that 
already almost 90 percent of Democrats are on our D.C. statehood bill. 
I am grateful to Senator Carper, who will soon introduce this same bill 
on the Senate side.
  There are many reasons that no Americans should fail to have equal 
rights if they pay equal taxes. But surely, service in every war the 
Nation has fought, even beyond being first per capita in Federal income 
taxes, should qualify the 700,000 residents of the District of Columbia 
for equal treatment as the 51st State.
  On this poster, we see why any State would stand for its rights: 
World War I, more casualties of people who live in the District of 
Columbia than three States; the Korean war, more casualties than those 
of eight States; World War II, casualties are more than four States; 
and the Vietnam war, casualties that outnumber those in 10 States.
  The residents of the District of Columbia will be here to say to my 
colleagues that 200-plus years--it is about 218 years now--without 
equal rights is 218 years too many.
  Nobody who lives in our country and pays taxes should be 
unrepresented on this floor when votes are taken. I appreciate that I 
can now vote for the District of Columbia in the Committee of the 
Whole, where some votes are taken. But District resident have no 
representation on this floor and none in the Senate at all.
  It is past time to right this wrong. We cannot do it for those who 
have died in war for our country. We can certainly do it in their 
memory.

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