[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 26 (Friday, February 7, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E155]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           INTRODUCTION OF THE WASHINGTON, D.C. ADMISSION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, February 7, 2020

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, the Committee on Oversight and Reform is 
preparing to hold the first markup of the District of Columbia 
statehood bill in either chamber of Congress since 1993, when I got the 
first-ever floor vote on the bill. I rise today to introduce a revised 
version of the bill, the purpose of which is to make technical and 
conforming changes and to address transition issues.
  On January 3, 2019, the first day of this Congress, I introduced H.R. 
51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which has 224 cosponsors, a 
record for the D.C. statehood bill and far more cosponsors than most 
bills passed by the House. The bill I introduce today includes the text 
of H.R. 51, but makes technical and conforming changes to the text, 
provides transition assistance to the new state and establishes a 
transition commission to assist with the orderly transition to 
statehood and to a reduced federal district. The D.C. statehood bill is 
well within the authority of Congress, and is in compliance with the 
Admissions and District clauses of the Constitution, as well as the 
23rd Amendment.
  While the Constitution does not establish prerequisites for admission 
of states into the Union, Congress has generally considered three 
factors: commitment to democracy, support for statehood and requisite 
population and resources for the state to support itself. The District 
meets each prerequisite. The District has a larger population than two 
states, pays more in federal taxes than 22 states and pays more in 
federal taxes per capita than any other state. D.C. has a higher per 
capita personal income and gross domestic product than any state. In 
November 2016, over 86 percent of District residents voted in favor of 
an advisory referendum requesting that the D.C. Council petition 
Congress for statehood.
  Congress has two choices. It can continue to exercise undemocratic, 
autocratic authority over the 705,000 American citizens who reside in 
our nation's capital, treating them, in the words of Frederick 
Douglass, as ``aliens, not citizens, but subjects.'' Or it can live up 
to this nation's promise and ideals, end taxation without 
representation and pass the Washington, D.C. Admission Act.
  Since the founding of the nation, District residents have always 
carried all the obligations of citizenship, including serving in all of 
the nation's wars and payment of federal taxes, all without voting 
representation on the floor in either house of Congress or freedom from 
congressional interference in purely local matters. The bill I 
introduce seeks to end this unequal treatment and give the residents of 
the nation's capital their full rights as American citizens.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to support this bill.

                          ____________________