Statehood for District of Columbia
Floor Speech
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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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