House Committee Approves Statehood For Washington, D.C.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee approved legislation on Wednesday that would make Washington, D.C., a state, sending the measure to the House for a vote later this month.

The Hill reports, House committee approves DC statehood bill:

The House Oversight and Reform Committee passed H.R. 51, also known as the Washington, D.C., Admission Act, in a 25-19 party-line vote.

The legislation, which has 215 co-sponsors, is likely to pass the House on a narrow, party-line vote, with all Republicans voting against it.

However, it will likely stall in an evenly divided Senate, where Democrats lack the 60 votes to overcome a Senate filibuster. It is also not clear that every Democrat in the Senate will back it.

After the committee vote, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said in a statement that his Senate counterpart bill, S.51, now has 44 Democratic co-sponsors, the highest yet for such legislation in the upper chamber.

Notably absent from the list, however, are the usual suspects, Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), both of whom are opposed to nixing the filibuster.

Sponsored by D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the legislation takes a novel approach to D.C. statehood by shrinking the capital to the National Mall, monuments, White House and other federal buildings. The rest of the city would become a new state.

D.C. statehood became a more prominent issue over the past year as the nation saw how the District was unable to control its National Guard during anti-police brutality protests following the death of George Floyd in police custody. The District’s guard is under federal control, not local control.

Most recently, the District’s slow response to the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol was also spotlighted.

But Norton has long advocated for the District to become a state, arguing that the city’s residents need proper representation in Congress.

“Congress can no longer allow D.C. residents to be sidelined in the democratic process, watching as Congress votes on matters that affect the nation with no say of their own or watching as Congress votes to overturn the laws of the duly elected D.C. Council with no say of their own,” Norton said during a hearing last month.

Republicans, however, argue that Democrats are attempting a power grab because the city generally leans Democratic. The GOP also argues that D.C. statehood violates the 23rd Amendment, which gives the District electoral votes on presidential elections.

The 23rd Amendment provides:

Section 1
The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as Congress may direct:

A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

Section 2
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

So Congress can simply pass legislation providing that the District’s 3 electoral college votes “if it were a state” are now the votes of the actual State of the District of Columbia. This is not an issue. H.R. 51  includes a provision that would fast-track the repeal of the 23rd Amendment, which currently gives D.C. electoral votes in presidential elections.

Advocates for statehood have long pointed to D.C.’s Black population to argue it should have statehood. The District is home to more than 700,000 people but has no senators, and its delegate in the House cannot vote on legislation. The District does have three electoral votes in presidential elections.

D.C. was long a majority-Black city, though according to U.S. census data from July 2019, its Black population was 47 percent.

Last summer, In Historic Vote, The House Approved Statehood for the District of Columbia. The bill of course died with Mitch McConnell, “The Grim Reaper” of the Senate graveyard of legislation.

As I have explained before, states are ordinarily admitted in pairs. Growing the U.S. to 52 States.

Puerto Rico officials are working with Reps. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), two members of the House Natural Resources Committee that has jurisdiction over Puerto Rico, to push for a hearing.

Committee chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) has yet to schedule a hearing, though a spokesman hinted that one is coming shortly.

If you want to see action on Puerto Rico statehood, contact Reps. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.)