It has been a long road, covering several decades as the District of Columbia has tried to get recognition as a state. And while DC the seat of the U.S. federal government and several international organizations, it is not a part of any U.S. state, under the Constitution.
D.C. citizens pay full federal and local taxes, but they do not get the privileges of representation and independence that the states have. Also, unlike the states, when D.C. receives federal funding, the funding comes with directives on how the money should be spent.
D.C. residents do not have voting representatives in the Senate or in the House of Representatives to protect their interests. They have nonvoting representation only in the House that can sit on committees, but the representatives cannot vote on bills affecting their District. Only Senators and members of Congress from the states have voting powers.
And while DC is considered a city, with a population of over 705,000 residents, it is more populous than the states of Wyoming and Vermont. Interestingly, DC voters can choose three presidential electors in accordance with the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961.
Statehood is a civil rights issue for some advocates
The civil rights issue is important because the district does not have representation in Congress, other than Eleanor Holmes Norton, but she is a non-voting delegate in the House. Yet DC residents pay more in federal taxes than 21 states and more per capita than any state, according to 2019 IRS data, say civil rights advocates.
The District is also diverse, with a population that is 46 percent Black and majority non-white. But more concerning to Republicans who are in opposition to DC statehood, the district is overwhelmingly Democratic, having voted for the Democratic candidate solidly since it was granted electoral votes in 1964.
For Eleanor Holmes Norton, gaining statehood for DC would be the culmination of a life’s work. “My service in the Congress has been dedicated to achieving equality for the people I represent, which only statehood can provide,” Norton said at a Wednesday news conference. “My life as a third-generation Washingtonian has marched toward this milestone.”
If statehood does come to pass, the new state would be called Washington, Douglass Commonwealth — named after famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who lived in Washington from 1877 until his death in 1895, according to the Associated Press.
After tomorrow's historic, House vote on #DCStatehood, we will continue our fight, in the Senate, to make DC the 51st state.
DC should be a state. Pass it on. pic.twitter.com/5JjBSpCKp7
— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) April 21, 2021
GOP overwhelmingly opposed to statehood for DC
The legislation, titled H.R. 51, is not expected to get past the Senate, which needs an additional 10 Republican votes to pass. And that opposition was already on the House floor this morning in advance of the vote.
The country’s founding fathers, “never wanted DC to be a state and then specifically framed the constitution to say so,” said Georgia Republican Rep. Jody Hice. “This is absolutely against what our founders intended and it ought to be soundly rejected.”
But Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerald Connolly pointed out that Kentucky was once a part of Virginia, and was carved out as a state by a simple act of Congress. Connolly also pointed out that the district was a theoretical concept when first conceived, not a community with a higher population than two U.S. states.
“When the constitution was written, this place didn’t exist,” he said. “When people say this is not about race and partisanship, you can be sure it’s about race and partisanship.”
But the bottom line is what will keep Republicans awake all night. Should DC be granted statehood, – the new state would add two reliably Democratic seats to the Senate, making it exponentially harder for the GOP to win back majority control, per CNBC News.
This is not the first time in recent years that statehood for DC has been struck down by the GOP. An identical bill passed the House in 2020 and was struck down by the Republican-controlled Senate.