House Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., again introduced a bill to make Washington, D.C., the 51st state.
The nonvoting delegate in Congress introduced the bill as her first of the 116th Congress, and it quickly drew 151 cosponsors, according to a press release from her office.
Statehood for Washington, D.C., an overwhelmingly Democratic enclave, would almost certainly give the party an additional House member and two new senators. House Committee on Oversight and Reform Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., committed to holding a hearing and markup on the Washington, D.C. Admission Act in 2019, according to the news release.
“We are gratified by the overwhelming support from my Democratic colleagues as we seize this new moment for statehood and press our bill in the 116th Congress with unprecedented momentum,” Norton said.
Norton has introduced versions of the D.C. statehood bill before, but with Republicans controlling the House the past eight years the proposals went nowhere. Even under the new House Democratic majority the measure faces long odds, as Republicans control the Senate and President Trump wields a potential veto pen in the White House.
Norton says that her bill would help to protect the rights of those hundreds of thousands of Americans living in the nation’s capital who currently lack congressional representation.
If the D.C. statehood proposal did somehow pass, federal buildings and grounds, such as the National Mall and Capitol premises, would remain under U.S. government jurisdiction.
