A House Republican wants to attach Washington, D.C., on to Maryland rather than giving the nation’s capital statehood. But Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin isn’t interested.
Cardin, a Democrat, on Wednesday blasted a Republican proposal by South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson that would circumvent the need to grant the district statehood by merging the D.C. suburbs into the surrounding state of Maryland.
Johnson reintroduced the District of Columbia-Maryland Reunion Act on Wednesday afternoon, hours after Delaware Democratic Sen. Tom Carper reintroduced his bill that would grant the district statehood.
Democrats contend the district’s more than 700,000 residents deserve voting and other rights afforded to people who live in the 50 states. Republicans call the proposal a thinly veiled effort to give heavily Democratic Washington, D.C., a new House seat and two senators, diluting GOP strength in the legislative bodies.
Carper’s bill would have the District of Columbia consist solely of federal buildings and the National Mall. Johnson’s proposal goes in a different direction.
“The District of Columbia-Maryland Reunion Act kills two birds with one stone,” said Johnson in a press statement. “It removes the need for D.C. statehood, while also providing representation to individuals living in the district by merging the suburbs with Maryland.”
Cardin told the Washington Examiner that Marylanders and D.C. residents do not want to go this route.
“[D.C. residents] don’t particularly want to do that, and Maryland doesn’t particularly want to do that. It’s not what they want. They want their own autonomy, which they are entitled to, and Maryland … doesn’t want to impose itself,” Cardin said.
“People should make their own determinations, and the district should be a state. It’s bigger than a lot of states already,” Cardin said. “We’re violating the Helsinki Principles with what we do to the people in the district. So to me, it’s a human rights issue. It’s not a partisan issue.”
