The House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly passed a bill that would make Washington, D.C. a state.
In a partisan 216-208 vote, the House approved the legislation, which would give Washington two senators and representation in the lower chamber if it’s also passed by the Senate and signed into law.
All Democrats backed the bill, while all Republicans voted against it.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on the House floor before the vote that the chamber was poised to “right an [sic] historic injustice by passing legislation to finally grant Washington D.C. statehood.”
“D.C. residents have been fighting for voting rights and autonomy for 220 years, with a full 86 percent recently voting for statehood. And it is well past the time to grant them the rights that they have been fighting for and that they deserve,” she added.
H.R. 51 was introduced by Delagate Eleanor Norton Homes (D-D.C.).
“This country was founded on the principles of no taxation without representation and consent of the governed. But D.C. Residents are taxed without representation and cannot consent to the laws under which they, as American citizens, must live,” Holmes told colleagues in Washington.
Republicans said granting statehood to Washington runs counter to the Constitution.
“Every Justice Department from President Kennedy’s to President Obama’s has been consistent that a constitutional amendment is needed to grant the district statehood,” Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said on the House floor.
One study (pdf) by the Department of Justice during that time period found that “an amendment to the Constitution would be required before the District of Columbia may be admitted to the Union as a state.”
Comer noted that the 23rd Amendment grants Washington electors as if it were a state. In the last election, that was three electoral votes. Additionally, Congress in 1970 authorized residents of Washington to elect a non-voting delegate to the House.
“Democrats want to rewrite the Constitution without going through the proper process of doing so,” he said, adding that he proposed a change to the bill that would first repeal the 23rd Amendment but that proposal was rejected.
The upper chamber is currently divided evenly between Republicans and Democrats, including two nominal independents who virtually always vote with Democrats. It’s widely considered unlikely that the Senate will pass H.R. 51.
President Joe Biden supports the legislation.
House Democrats passed a Washington statehood bill in the last Congress. It was not voted on in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Republicans have charged that Democrat support for Washington statehood is partially motivated by the fact it would virtually guarantee two more Democrat senators and more Democrats in the House. Washington overwhelmingly votes Democrat in elections.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor on Thursday accused detractors of being racist because the racial makeup of the district is 47 percent black.
“I shouldn’t have to remind my colleagues that it’s shockingly inappropriate to remind my colleagues that it’s shockingly inappropriate to imply that the lives and occupations and rights of D.C. residents are somehow less than their fellow citizens in other ‘more real,’ and almost always more white, parts of the country,” he said.
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