Washington:
Congressional Democrats and Washington’s mayor produced their case Monday for statehood for the US capital, proclaiming the disenfranchisement of DC residents one of the final glaring violations of American civil rights.
More than 712,000 people today live in the District of Columbia, a Democratic stronghold with a population higher than two states, Wyoming and Vermont, and comparable to two other individuals.
Its residents fight and die in US wars and face a greater federal tax burden than people today in the 50 states. But when Washingtonians can cast ballots in US presidential elections, they are denied votes in Congress.
“Every American deserves a voice in their own government,” mentioned congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, as she opened a hearing on a bill that would make Washington DC the 51st state.
“Taxation without representation was the battle cry of our revolution, and it is still a battle cry.”
It will be an uphill road for statehood.
The bill is anticipated to pass the House, but it is unlikely to win approval in the evenly divided Senate, exactly where Republicans would most likely block the measure.
But Democrats are applying their manage of Congress to make momentum.
Recent polling by Data For Progress shows 54 % of most likely voters nationwide think Washington DC should really be a state, a record level of assistance.
Today, with Democrats controlling the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House, “we have never been closer to statehood,” Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the district in the House as a non-voting delegate, told the hearing.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser who, like Norton, is Black, homed in on the debate’s racial element, noting at the hearing that early moves to appropriate the injustice of no congressional representation have been “replaced by racist efforts to subvert a growing and thriving Black city.”
“The disenfranchisement of Washingtonians is one of the remaining glaring civil rights and voting rights issues of our time,” Bowser mentioned.
Placard-waving supporters of DC statehood gathered on quite a few street corners Monday. Near the US Capitol dozens chanted “No more wait for a DC state!” and “51 in ’21!”
City authorities also posted American flags close to the White House that bore 51 stars rather of the official 50, adding an additional star for Washington.
“Power grab?”
Last June in a historic vote, the House passed the symbolically-titled bill HR 51, which would make the state of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, named for 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
The measure died in the Republican-controlled Senate.
But with the Senate now in the hands of Democrats and President Joe Biden in the White House, the party has revived the bill.
Biden himself backs the initiative. “He believes they deserve representation, that’s why he supports DC statehood,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters final Thursday.
The DC statehood measure would give the capital two US senators and a voting representative in the House.
With Washington leaning heavily Democratic, the party would most likely choose up all 3 congressional seats.
Democrats frame the bill as an overdue remedy to disenfranchisement perpetuated due to the fact Congress produced Washington the nation’s permanent capital in 1790, and a longstanding civil rights challenge for a city that is almost 50 % black.
Republicans who oppose the work say it runs counter to the intent of the US Constitution’s framers who sought to make a distinctive federal district not influenced by any state.
“DC statehood would mean a money grab from neighboring states, and a power grab by the United States Senate, all done in an impractical and unconstitutional fashion,” House Republican Jody Hice told the hearing.
Fellow Republican James Comer provided more blatantly political opposition, calling the statehood push “a key part of the radical leftist agenda to reshape America.”
Republicans say any DC statehood initiative have to be accomplished via a constitutional amendment.
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