Introduction of the Washington, D.C. Admission Act

Floor Speech

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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.

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