[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 87 (Thursday, May 23, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H4158-H4160]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 STATEHOOD FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from the District 
of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for 30 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, the House will not be in session next 
Monday, Memorial Day. That day has very special meaning for the 700,000 
residents in the Nation's Capital.
  The District of Columbia is one of the oldest jurisdictions in the 
United States. That means that residents of the Nation's Capital have 
fought and died in every war, including the war that created the United 
States of America: the Revolutionary War.
  I have come to the House floor today to particularly recognize, on 
Memorial Day coming, the denial of full participation in their 
government through statehood, not only to the District of Columbia's 
residents, but to our present Active-Duty servicemembers, our National 
Guard members, our reservists, our many veterans and their families who 
are residents of the District of Columbia.
  Their service and sacrifice, along with that of Americans across the 
breadth of this land, but especially their sacrifice, is unparalleled 
and, therefore, deserves special mention: unparalleled because those 
who served, those who died, those who continue to serve to protect our 
country do so without full and equal rights in their own country.
  Later, I will be speaking about what their sacrifices have meant to 
our country, but as I come to the floor, I start by paying special 
tribute to the sacrifices that the residents of the Nation's Capital 
have made for 218 years.
  I will be going, this coming week, with the Mayor of the District of 
Columbia, with the city council chair, with the entire government, to 
what is called the D.C. War Memorial. This pristine, beautiful memorial 
is dedicated to those who lost their lives in World War I.
  It is the only memorial--indeed, it is the only edifice--on The Mall 
that is dedicated to people in one district, and for very good reason: 
because that district is our Nation's Capital; because those whose 
names appear on that memorial--I think there are 400- or so names--died 
without full representation and died giving that kind of 
representation, the kind of democracy, the kind of democracy that 
others have.

                              {time}  1315

  Our country, of course, prides itself on its democratic traditions, 
but we must remember that the country was founded seeking democracy, 
not as a democracy.
  When it was founded, only White men who held property could vote. 
That means that the majority then could not vote and did not have their 
democratic rights. So we have to, with some humility, approach our own 
standing as a democracy. May I remind us all today that it took 132 
years after the Nation's founding for women to get the right to vote.
  When half the population didn't have the right to vote, I am sure 
Members came to this House floor saying what a wonderful democracy it 
was. Well, it wasn't.
  What is important about our country is our aspiration to become the 
democracy that the Framers themselves hoped we would come--they hoped 
we would become because even they had created a constitution where an 
African American was counted as three-fifths of a man. That was a 
compromise.
  They created this country knowing, believing, that those of us who 
sit in this House, in the Senate, and Americans throughout the country 
would make our democracy a real democracy over time.
  It has taken 218 years, and still counting, for the District of 
Columbia and its residents to achieve statehood, including voting 
rights and all the rights that come with equal citizenship.
  We are the only democracy in the world where the residents who live 
in the Nation's Capital don't have the same rights as everyone else in 
that country.
  I am not pessimistic today. We are just 5 months into the new 
Congress, and we are already beginning to break ground with those old 
traditions.
  In March, the House passed H.R. 1, as we call it. That is our all-
democracy, prodemocracy bill, still trying to achieve full democracy 
throughout the United States. I will say a bit about H.R. 1 shortly.
  It has findings, extensive findings for D.C. statehood, which means, 
since it passed by more than a majority, that most Members of the House 
are already on track and on the Record for D.C. statehood.
  I am grateful that Speaker Nancy Pelosi 3 days into the new term 
issued a very powerful statement, the head of the House, endorsing 
statehood.
  I am grateful to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who unveiled a 
sweeping proposal to bring democracy to our country. His proposal is 
interesting because it included only three issues: combating voter 
disenfranchisement through the Voting Rights Act, establishing national 
automatic voter registration laws; and the third one, support of D.C. 
statehood.
  I think that says a great deal about what the priority of bringing 
full democracy to the Nation's Capital means to the Nation.
  I am grateful to Chairman Elijah Cummings, the chairman of the House 
Committee on Oversight and Reform, who has announced that he will hold 
a hearing on D.C. statehood and will bring the bill to the floor this 
year.
  It is worth hearing a few words from Speaker Pelosi, to show the 
commitment of our party to full democracy.
  The Speaker said: ``The right to vote and to equal representation is 
the foundation of our freedom and a core pillar of our democracy. For 
too long, the residents of the District of Columbia have served our 
Nation in uniform, paid taxes, and contributed to the economic power 
and success of our country while being denied the full enfranchisement 
that is their right.''
  I am encouraged today because while it takes 218 votes to pass the 
D.C. statehood bill, already 5 months into this new majority, we have 
204 cosponsors. We are very grateful and very proud of that very strong 
showing of support for democracy in the Nation's Capital.
  To elaborate a bit on the significance of being in H.R. 1, which 
documented findings for why the District of Columbia should have 
statehood, to put that in context, just look at the other matters that 
were in this enhancing democracy bill, because they didn't have 
anything to do with D.C. statehood.
  And yet, D.C. statehood is in this enhancing democracy bill, which 
includes such matters as supporting the adoption of paper ballots to 
protect our election infrastructure from cyberattacks, increasing donor 
disclosure requirements, strengthening campaign oversight, expanding 
early voting and voting by mail, ending partisan gerrymandering, 
requiring all Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates to publicly 
disclose their tax returns--until this President. For decades, others 
have, of course.
  You can see those issues are about enhancing democracy in the larger 
sense. It says everything about the priority of this Congress that H.R. 
1 also includes making sure that the residents of the Nation's Capital 
have the same and, indeed, equal rights with other Americans.
  We are well on our way to nationalizing the fight to D.C. statehood, 
nationalizing, because my one frustration, that we have faced and 
continue to face, that most residents, most Americans, think that those 
who live in their Nation's Capital have the same rights they have. That 
is what I mean by the need to nationalize this important issue.
  What polls show is that it is inconceivable to the average American 
that there would be any Americans who don't have the same rights that 
they have. Of course, that is the case.
  That is why, periodically, I come to the floor to make sure and 
remind the House of this anomaly, that we are the only country that 
does not give those

[[Page H4159]]

who live in its capital the same rights as others in their country.
  I am heartened by the many national organizations that, as I speak, 
have come on to endorse statehood for the District of Columbia.
  As I was, literally, coming to the House floor, a staff member rushed 
behind me to add another one. It is up to 20.
  I will bet by the time I get back to my office in the Rayburn 
Building, the number will be even beyond 20 because they have been 
coming on ever since we put out the word. They represent millions of 
people and can help Americans to know what they do not know.

  These are the national organizations that by the time I came to the 
House floor had endorsed D.C. statehood: Common Cause, Public Citizen, 
National Active and Retired Employees Association, Sierra Club, People 
For the American Way, International Association of Machinists and 
Aerospace Workers, Planned Parenthood, Demand Justice, Indivisible, 
Americans for Democratic Action, Demos, NORML, NETWORK, Stand Up 
America, Demand Progress, United Food and Commercial Workers, 
Democratic Coalition, National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund, and Human 
Rights Campaign.
  These are organizations whose numbers go into the many millions that 
can help us by making sure Americans know what many would be ashamed to 
find out, that they live in a country where people who live in their 
Nation's Capital don't have the same rights they have.
  What a diverse city this is, about half Black, half White, many high-
income people--yes, its share of poor people like every city--top 10 in 
economic growth, bursting at the seams with more people moving in every 
day, the kind of National Capital Americans have every right to be 
proud of.
  Until Democrats captured this House, even our self-government, the 
right to govern ourselves in the District of Columbia, was under 
attack. I had to fight off bills that eliminate important laws in the 
District of Columbia. What did they have to say about our local laws?
  For example, a favorite has been attempts to wipe out all the gun 
safety laws in the District of Columbia. I have been able to defeat 
these bills--almost all of them--even while I have been in the 
minority.
  But why should I have to come to this floor to say to Members of the 
House that these are local matters?
  This is a national body. Stay out of our business.
  There were laws that would have repealed our Local Budget Autonomy 
Act, where we deal only with spending matters resident alone pay for.
  A law they tried to erase a recreational marijuana. Ten states allow 
recreational marijuana, which the House has allowed.
  They tried to wipe out abortions for low-income women. They tried to 
wipe out our Death with Dignity Act. These, of course, are rather 
progressive matters.
  Death with dignity, for example, after seeking the advice of a 
physician, and with only 6 months to live, allows people to take their 
own lives, with pharmaceuticals provided by a physician. That is not 
the case for every jurisdiction.
  By the way, the majority of American people support this right. But 
if you disagree with it, Congress can't do anything about it anywhere 
else, only in the District of Columbia.
  I could name several other bills. We were able to defeat all of these 
bills away except two. One is the marijuana commercialization act. We 
were able to save the ability to possess 2 ounces but not to do what 
those 10 states already do, which is to regulate it and tax it.
  Marijuana should be regulated, not just sold. Why does the House not 
want that? Of course, to sell and legally tax marijuana, if you don't 
do that, people will smoking marijuana anyway.
  We have six universities here. Do you think people aren't smoking 
pot?
  The Republican priority has always been local control. That is their 
mantra. They even want the Federal Government often out of the business 
that the Federal Government must be in.
  We have indicated that we would like that mantra to apply to the 
District of Columbia as well.

                              {time}  1330

  At the same time, we are on a dual track. At the same time that we 
are trying to get statehood, we have not gotten full control of our own 
city because the Congress, as I have just indicated, can intervene.
  So, at the same time that we are trying to get statehood, which would 
do the whole thing, we are also trying to use the Home Rule Act simply 
to get what every other jurisdiction has: a local prosecutor, for 
example; the right to declare clemency for local residents, local 
control of local courts, etc.
  So we are on two tracks: statehood, which would give us the whole set 
of rights that the rest of the country has; and using the Home Rule 
Act--and the District has had home rule since 1973--simply getting the 
kinds of rights that do not require statehood but that other 
jurisdictions have passed locally.
  I have gotten three bills passed this term. I got them passed in the 
first 3 months. And note that, even when I was in the minority in the 
last Congress--I was voted the most effective Democrat in the Congress. 
The commentary noted that Norton--does not have the final vote on the 
House floor.
  I got back my vote in the Committee of the Whole. I now vote for the 
District of Columbia when the House meets in the Committee of the 
Whole. I was able to get that right when I first came to Congress.
  And if this is believable, when the Democrats lost the House, 
Republicans took back even that vote, the DC vote in the Committee of 
the Whole, even though it had been approved by the courts of the United 
States. It was granted by the House; therefore, it could be taken away 
by the House. It was taken away by the House before.
  Getting full and equal rights for the District of Columbia is 
personal to me because I am a native Washingtonian--indeed, a third-
generation Washingtonian.
  I cannot help but tell the story of my great-grandfather, a runaway 
slave from Virginia. He came to the District of Columbia when they 
still had slavery, when, of course, it didn't have any home rule or 
statehood.
  The District was being built. This Capitol building was being built. 
Work was being done on the streets, and people were anxious to hire 
anybody they could find. Richard Holmes got a job working on the 
streets of the District of Columbia.
  And passed down to my family is what happened to Richard Holmes. 
Richard Holmes that continues to inspire me, even as I am inspired by 
our veterans as we approach Memorial Day.
  Richard Holmes was working on the streets of the District of 
Columbia, where slave owners roamed the streets, because, after all, 
valuable property was lost if there was a runaway slave that could be 
identified.
  A man walked up behind Richard Holmes and called out the name 
``Richard.'' Richard Holmes kept digging. Then the slave owner went 
over to the straw boss and said, ``That is my slave. I have come to 
take him back.'' And the straw boss said, ``Well, that man didn't 
answer to that name,'' and he let Richard Holmes stay.
  I think Richard Holmes must have been a good worker, so he just 
wasn't going to give him up. I don't know that. All I know is that he 
did not give him up, and the Holmes family has been very grateful ever 
since.
  This has been the most important destination, not only for people 
like my great-grandfather who simply walked off of a plantation in 
Virginia. In telling the story, you will note that I didn't speak about 
Richard Holmes as some heroic runaway slave, because that is not how 
the story was told to us. We were told that Richard Holmes simply 
walked off that plantation when nobody was looking and walked all the 
way to the District of Columbia from way down in Virginia.
  In a real sense, I feel like I am walking. I am continuing in his 
footsteps as I strive to help my city become the 51st State, no longer 
be a city where there is taxation without representation.
  Imagine the outrage. This is not a Congress which likes taxes, 
particularly my Republican friends. Well, a lot of us have owned up to 
the fact that it became a great country because all of us pitched in, 
including paying Federal

[[Page H4160]]

taxes. But imagine paying Federal taxes when you don't have anything to 
say about the amount of those taxes or anything else about those taxes.
  Imagine being number one per capita in Federal taxes to support your 
country and yet having no final vote on this House floor when those 
taxes are raised, when, for example, there has been a massive tax cut 
that went to the great benefit, as it turned out, of corporations and 
the very well-off.
  For the District of Columbia, I could speak on that bill but I could 
not vote on that bill, even though I represent those who will pay the 
highest amount in taxes pursuant to that bill.
  So taxation without representation is not simply a slogan for the 
people I represent. It has real meaning, as real for us as it did for 
the Framers. They were willing to risk treasonous acts in order not to 
pay taxes without representation.
  As the United States stands, today as a Nation, we are in violation 
of treaties the United States has signed because we do not grant full 
and equal rights to the residents of the Nation's Capital.
  For example, our country, in 1977, signed the International Covenant 
on Civil and Political Rights. The Human Rights Committee, which has 
oversight over that treaty, has since said that the United Nations 
delegation to the U.N. `` . . . remains concerned that residents of the 
District of Columbia do not enjoy full representation in Congress, a 
restriction which does not seem to be compatible with article 25 of the 
covenant,'' the covenant that the United States has signed, in 
violation of all our country stands for and in violation of 
international law.
  So, as this Memorial Day comes, I come to the floor simply to remind 
my colleagues of what it means for those of us who live in our Nation's 
Capital. Even though on this Memorial Day we recall the Memorial Days 
that have gone ahead, commemorating the residents of this city who have 
fought and died in every war, I believe we should particularly note the 
first African American general, who happened to be born and raised in 
the District of Columbia; the first African American Air Force general, 
who was born and raised in the District of Columbia; the first African 
American Naval Academy graduate, born and raised in the District of 
Columbia; and the first African American Air Force Academy graduate, 
born and raised in the District of Columbia.

  I cite these African Americans because they served, all of them, when 
the District was a segregated city. And when I say the District was a 
segregated city, understand that this was a majority-White city and has 
been a majority-White city for most of its 218 years as a city.
  And yet African Americans and Whites have been treated in exactly the 
same way, as second-class and perhaps worse.
  On Monday, the last Monday in May, Memorial Day will mean perhaps 
more to the residents of our Nation's Capital than anywhere else, and 
particularly to our veterans who are still living here. We cannot help 
but remember that in World War I the District lost more lives than 
three States.
  And, therefore, on Memorial Day, 2019, as I remember at our 
casualties, I speak on this House floor for every resident, for every 
veteran, and, I believe, for every American when I say all Americans, 
those who live, those who have died, and those who continue to serve, 
are entitled to full and equal rights.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________