Washington, D.C. Admission Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRIFFITH. Mr. Speaker, D.C. statehood is unconstitutional. Both Republican and Democrat administrations of the past have long interpreted the Constitution in that fashion.

One of the problems with D.C. statehood is that two States, Maryland and my home State of Virginia, gave land for the cede of government, and they did not do so with the intent to create a new State.

When Virginia's land wasn't used for the cede of government, Congress ceded it back to Virginia. It did not create a new State.

As it was then, retrocession is our best course of action today. Shrinking the seat of government, which is permitted by Article I, and returning the rest to Maryland for the purposes of representation, offers D.C. residents a voice in the Federal legislative branch and keeps faith with Maryland's original cession of land for D.C. It also works within the bounds of the Constitution.

Mr. Speaker, I have introduced a bill, and it is later going to be a motion to recommit. And I have also taken great care, as a part of that, making sure that retrocession and the transfer of administrative functions from D.C. to Maryland runs as smoothly as possible.

If you are worried about the details of D.C. government, this bill, this motion to recommit, takes care of them.

As the old Prego commercials said: It's in there.

Congressional representation, it's in there.

The courts, it's in there.

The National Guard, it's in there.

Commitments to retirees, it's in there.

Tuition assistance, it's in there.

Preventing the remaining Federal District from casting the three electoral votes meant for D.C., it is in there.

My motion to recommit, which I will offer in a bit, is the most practical solution to giving D.C. residents a voice in Congress, to give them a right to vote.

Mr. Speaker, if we adopt a motion to recommit, we will instruct the Committee on Oversight and Reform to consider my amendment to H.R. 51, to provide for the retrocession of land to the State of Maryland, rather than to create a new State.

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