Washington, D.C. Admission Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. MFUME. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the distinguished Delegate, the congressperson from Washington, D.C., for her steadfast leadership on this.
I had the opportunity to work with her predecessor back in the late 1980s in this Chamber, Delegate Walter Fauntroy, who passed the torch, and the Delegate has done a great job.
It took 27 years to get this vote back onto the floor. I was there in 1993 when we came up short. Today, I am hoping and praying that this bill passes.
I want to congratulate you on that and to remind others that this is not going to go away because, at the end of the day, this is really about taxation without representation, one of the original 27 colonial grievances filed against the King, which was a major cause of the Revolutionary War.
So when people in Boston had the Tea Party and threw tea in the Boston Harbor in December of 1773, they were making a statement and setting an example for people across this Nation to understand that we just can't tax people without allowing them to be represented.
You have heard the great discussions, the cogent points about the fiscal side of this, that D.C. residents pay more taxes per capita than any other State, that they pay more general taxes than 22 States, that they have a budget larger than 11 States, and a bond rating better than almost 30 other States.
I have heard this discussion when it comes to fiscal matters about the constitutional federation of States, the great words of Hamilton and the Federalists and the Federalist Papers. I understand that.
But one thing we have to remember when we raise Hamilton and talk about the Federalists is that their stated belief was the Constitution was meant to evolve, that it was a living document. That is not my impression. That is the impression and the opinion of the Federalists.
If that were not true, I could not be here as a descendant of a slave without the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. The distinguished woman couldn't be here. She had not the right to vote under the Federalist Papers. Alaska and Hawaii, when I was born, were not States.
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