Democrats at the United States House of Representatives approved a statement Thursday for Washington, DC, to become the 51st US city.
Voting in the aftermath of the parties and a few Republican rivals, the House approved the bill 216-208. It is now embroiled in a bitter feud in the US Senate, which Republicans view as a Democratic coup.
While 705,000 citizens of the city are able to vote for candidates for the US presidency, they do not have the opportunity to vote in Congress but still have to pay taxes to the government.
Making Washington, DC, a state have created new positions in Congress – one House representative and two cinemas – that all but to be filled with Democrats, as DC citizens have already voted for Democratic candidates in the majority.
The bill seeks to establish 51 states from another section on the Potomac River approved by Congress in 1780 as the country’s capital. Locations around the White House, the US Capitol and the National Mall remain a state, as enshrined in the US Constitution.
Under the newly approved parliament, the new government will be known as Washington, Douglass Commonwealth – named after Frederick Douglass, who lived in Washington from 1877 until his death in 1895.
Same statehood currency passed the building in 2020, but died swiftly in the Republican-led Senate at the time. Now, after the 2020 elections leave Democrats in control of all chambers and the White House, Republican cinemas could go to the filibuster to stop statehood funding.
For lifelong activists such as Eleanor Holmes Norton, a longtime Washington delegate who did not vote in Parliament, Thursday’s vote was the culmination of a lifetime of work.
“My service to Congress is committed to achieving equality among the people I represent, which only the government can provide,” Norton told a news conference Wednesday.
“My life as a third-generation Washingtonian has begun to peak.”
Senate Chief Justice Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, on Thursday wants to bring the money to the Senate.
“DC statehood is something I really believe in. We will do everything we can to do this,” Schumer told a news conference at Capitol Hill.
The House has just passed the ordinance to give DC a state.
This is about democracy. It’s about self-control. It is about voting rights.
I am proud to resume this bill in the Senate, and we are working to get it #DCStatehood for real.
– Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 22, 2021
The move has been heavily supported by White House President Joe Biden, who released a statement Tuesday saying Washington is not represented “and undermines the democracy established by our country”.
The White House has praised Washington for its commitment to government, and “a strong economy, rich culture, and diverse American people from all over the world who have the right to participate fully in our democracy”.
Republican protesters appeared in a fourth round of hearings Thursday morning before the House election.
The founding father of the country, “did not want DC to be a government and drafted a Constitution to say this,” said Jody Hice, the Republic of Georgia’s ambassador to the United States.
“This is contrary to what our founders wanted, and should be rejected.”
But Virginia Democratic Representative Gerald Connolly also said that Kentucky was once part of Virginia, yet formed as a state by Congress.
Connolly said the federal district was a mental state when he was born, not a village with more populations than Vermont and Wyoming.
“When the Constitution was drafted, the place was non-existent,” he said.
“When people say that this is not about racism or bigotry, you can be sure that it is about racism.”
On March to hear and the housing committee, Republicans also said DC should not be a government while calling for all Democratic efforts.
The plaintiffs offered a variety of options, ranging from Washington’s waiver of state taxes to the “repatriation” of most of DCs back to the state of Maryland.
