A House committee approved legislation on Wednesday that would grant statehood to the District of Columbia, making it the nation’s 51st state.
On a 25-19 party-line vote, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee advanced the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which would admit the district into the union as the “Washington, Douglass Commonwealth,” adding the latter portion to its name in honor of Frederick Douglass.
“Today’s committee passage will further serve to educate the millions of Americans who do not know that the Americans who live in their own nation’s capital do not have the same rights they have,” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the district in the House and who introduced the legislation, said on Wednesday.
GOP MOUNTS DEFENSE AGAINST DC STATEHOOD AS BILL GETS HOUSE HEARING
Committee members spent four hours debating the proposal’s constitutionality and various amendments, with Republicans arguing that statehood would not stand up to legal challenges and, in particular, that it would conflict with the 23rd Amendment, which authorizes Congress to give Washington, D.C., electoral votes.
Ranking member James Comer said that without repealing the 23rd Amendment, the legislation would create two entities: the seat of government and the new state.
“If this majority were acting responsibly, they would have moved to repeal the 23rd Amendment first before we voted on H.R. 51,” Comer said during the hearing.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a former constitutional law professor who served as a main point of reference for countering Republican arguments, said the bill creates the framework to address the 23rd Amendment issue, calling Republican arguments about the amendment a “red herring.”
Some Republicans also challenged Democrats’ motives in moving the statehood measure forward, insisting that it is a power grab in support Democratic interests.
“It’s all about creating two new Democrat U.S. Senate seats,” Comer said in his opening statement. “That’s what it’s about. We could end the discussion there, but that’s what this bill is all about, and everyone in America knows that.”
Raskin later linked that argument to the controversy surrounding Georgia’s new voting law, which those on the Left say amounts to voter suppression.
“There is an attitude that is growing in the country, which is, if you don’t like what someone else stands for, you nullify their right to vote,” Raskin said during an exchange with Republican Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia about the legislation.
The statehood bill would give the district full representation in Congress, with two senators and one representative in the House. The district is currently represented by a single nonvoting member.
Ultimately, Raskin argued, the question was whether to enfranchise the taxpayers of Washington, D.C.
“Congress acts in the final analysis as the state legislature of these 700,000 people.” Raskin said, referring to district residents. “Congress in different political alignments has overruled or changed the policies of the people of D.C. on everything from adoption to marriage to needle exchange. … That means people in D.C. who pay more taxes, as congresswoman Norton pointed out, than people in dozens of states … they actually don’t have any voting representation in Congress, which acts as their own state legislature.”
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Although the House passed the same bill granting district statehood in the previous Congress, the Republican-led Senate did not take it up. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after that vote that it is “past time” for Washington, D.C., to be granted statehood, and President Joe Biden came out in support of statehood in March.
The full House will take up the statehood bill next week. It’s unclear when the legislation is expected to be taken up in the Senate.
