U.S. Senate holds D.C. statehood hearing
September 16, 2014
| Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-Washington, DC) pleading the case for statehood on the House floor on April 10, 2014 |
Washington, D.C.: For the first time in 21 years, the U.S. Senate recently held a committee hearing about the possibility of statehood for most of Washington, D.C.
As a district, Washington's congressional delegation of one House member, has no power to vote on legislation. Congress has the ability to overrule any law passed by district lawmakers and set its budget and district residents pay federal taxes.[1][2] While advocates of statehood were happy to get a hearing, expectations were tempered with only one committee member, Chairman Tom Carper (D-DE) attending the entire hearing.[1] Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), the committee's ranking Republican was present at the start of the hearing but left in just over half an hour.[2]
The hearing was held on September 15 by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and attended by a standing-room-only crowd that overflowed out of the room.
Washington, D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) and Mayor Vincent Gray (D) headlined the event, pointing out that the city of 645,000 people paid $4 billion in federal taxes in 2013 and claiming that the people of Washington were being "denied" their basic rights.[2][1]
The proposed bill would separate the city of Washington from federal sites such as the Capitol Building, White House and other monuments and installations, which would remain federal land keeping the name, District of Columbia, and the rest of the city would be the 51st state, New Columbia. The change would also be likely to add two Democratic senators and one Democratic representative.[2]
In addition to the missing committee members, many of whom were tending to their home districts, Sen. Coburn pointed out that President Barack Obama also failed to send a representative to the hearing. When asked about the idea of statehood for the city in 2013, the president said, "I'm for it." Coburn claimed the hearing was a political ploy on a day that few would attend and during a time that few outside Washington would care about the issue considering that 2014 congressional elections are just around the corner.[2]
The last time a bill was introduced in an effort to provide statehood to D.C. was 1993. The closest the district ever came to achieving it was in 1963, when 16 states ratified a constitutional amendment.[3] Nineteen Democratic senators signed onto the bill.[2]
See also
|
- Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-Washington, D.C.)
- Vincent Gray
- District of Columbia
- United States Constitution
- Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)
- Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE)
- United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 New York Times, "District of Columbia Officials Push for Statehood at a Senate Committee Hearing," September 15, 2014
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 The Washington Post, "Congress takes up bill to make D.C. the 51st state," September 15, 2014
- ↑ WJLA, "D.C. statehood hearing by Congressional committee unlikely to spur change," September 15, 2014
