Congressional Lawmakers were divided Monday over the DC statehood question, a measure that has been favored by Democrats and is gaining public momentum, reported NBC News.
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing on the H.R. 51, nicknamed the “Washington, DC Admission Act,” which was introduced in January. If passed, DC would be granted full Congressional representation with two senators and one House member. Currently, DC has one nonvoting House delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton (D).
Norton, who introduced HB 51, told reporters it is time Congress reconsider the legislation due to “boosted support for DC statehood” and the measure’s popularity with voters during the last election cycle because, as she told her colleagues, they’ve “never been closer.”
Norton also told her colleagues they were faced with a choice when it came to the question of statehood. They could “exercise undemocratic, autocratic authority over the American citizens who reside in our nation’s capital,” or they could choose to “end taxation without representation and pass HR 51.”
On the opposing side, Republicans like Rep. James Comer, a ranking member on the committee, called Norton’s DC statehood bill “Plan B of the Democrat political power grab,” he said.
“DC statehood is a key part of the radical leftist agenda to reshape America, along with the Green New Deal, defunding the police and packing the US Supreme Court,” he Rep. Comer said.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser was one of those who testified at the hearing Monday. She argued that DC has a larger population than two states and pays federal taxes, the same as any state. She went on to say that the continued disenfranchisement of the city‘s residents is an insult.
“Arguing that Washingtonians must remain disenfranchised to protect the interests of the federal government is dangerous, outdated and downright insulting.”
Bowser also pointed to the fact that racism may be at play given that the majority of DC’s population is Black. “The drive to the correct the wrong was replaced by racist efforts to subvert a growing and thriving Black city,” she said in the hearing.
The bill is expected to pass in the House with a Democratic majority, but the Senate will be an uphill battle, Currently, there is a Democratic majority by one tie-breaking vote held by the Vice President. There will need to be a 60 vote majority in favor of the bill for it to pass.
