DC Mayor Fights On For Statehood In Halls of Congress
Mayor Bowser debunks bogus arguments against making Washington DC nation's 51st state
It's becoming a familiar journey for Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Physically, of course, it's only a short trip from the building that functions as sort of the District of Columbia's de facto city hall — the John A. Wilson Building — to the halls of Congress on Capitol Hill.
Those halls have become increasingly familiar to Bowser as she appears before one committee after another, often making the same well-reasoned and well-honed arguments that she — and her predecessors — have been making for Congress to grant DC statehood, making Washington the nation's 51st state and righting a grave historical wrong inflicted upon her city's 700,000.
Specifically, they pay federal income taxes — but have no voting representation in Congress regarding the expenditure of those taxes. That's a little situation known as “taxation without representation,” and as an American schoolchild will know, that's precisely what the American Revolution was fought over.
Still, because DC is so overwhelmingly Democratic in its voting patterns, congressional Republicans have refused to do the right thing and instead have blocked statehood at every turn — often with a lot of spurious arguments.
However, DC also has never been so close to reaching its goal of statehood before: the House has twice passed historic statehood legislation, and finally, in Joe Biden a president sits in the Oval Office who has publicly said that he would sign a statehood bill — if only it would clear the Senate.
So Bowser made the trek back to Capitol Hill Tuesday, to keep the fight alive: this time before the Senate Governmental Affairs and Homeland Security Committee, fighting for Sen Tom Carper's statehood bill.
“Our democracy is truly in the hands of this Senate. It is time for the U.S. Senate to support our petition for DC statehood,” Bowser said in her prepared testimony.
The District’s call for full democracy “has been drowned out by arguments that ignore the fact that the second-class status of District residents is clearly an anomaly of the U.S. Constitution, not a feature of it,” she noted.
Debunking “preposterous claims”
“Over the decades, arguments against DC Statehood have ranged from preposterous assertions to inaccurate legal claims. Just to cite a couple: in 2019, we were asked about what would happen to the parking spots for congressional staff if the District becomes a state. We were at a loss to see the correlation between full democracy for 700,000 American citizens and a few parking spaces,” Bowser said.
“This past March, I was confronted with concerns that the District could not be a state because it does not have a car dealership – even though it does. Statements like these not only discount the civil rights of District residents, they also demonstrate a true lack of understanding of the rapidly growing and thriving businesses, communities, and culture that surround the small federal presence,” she added. “It is for those neighborhoods, Michigan Park, Congress Park and Mount Pleasant, Columbia Heights and Hillcrest among them—that make up 99% of the District—and the people who live in them and who come to DC for school, government service, or other work that I appear today to petition for full equality.”
There is no legal or constitutional barrier to DC statehood; the prevailing constitutional issue is the civil rights violation of 700,000 DC residents who fulfill all obligations of U.S. citizenship “but are denied any representation in this body. I can say unequivocally that the bill before you today, S. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act is constitutional,” Bowser told senators. “Dozens of America’s most recognized constitutional experts have testified before Congress and penned letters to that effect. Scholars and experts have opined that it is fully within Congress’ power, under the Constitution, to make DC a state through passage of S. 51 …”
Deflating “retrocession”
Bowser also put the lie to a common fall-back, “compromise” offer many Republicans have been willing to make proponents of statehood: that of so-called “retrocession” of the land consisting of Washington DC back into Maryland, which first donated it more than 200 years ago.
Maryland neither wants DC back, nor does Washington DC want to become part of Maryland, Bowser explained.
Washington DC — particularly with its decades of history as a majority-Black city — has built a diverse and distinct culture and identity all of its own.
“Retrocession to Maryland is not required by the Constitution, nor is it addressed in the Constitution. Maryland has no claim to the land it ceded to the federal government when the District was founded,” Bowser said. “Would this body argue that Maine should retrocede to Massachusetts? Or that West Virginia should return to Virginia? Of course not.”
And DC and its leadership won't take “no” for an answer, the mayor vowed.
“I promise you: DC residents have been at this for nearly 220 years. We will not quit until we achieve full democracy – and our two senators are seated here with you,” she said. “DC residents are not standing alone. Over the years we have garnered the support of Americans of all stripes and beliefs: the bi-partisan United States Conference of Mayors, representing millions of Americans in big cities and small towns; the non-partisan League of Women Voters who for 100 years have fought to defend our democracy; the NAACP; the Human Rights Campaign; and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights – who recognize DC Statehood for the civil and human rights contradiction that it is; to your former colleague and independent Senator Joe Lieberman whose focus on justice and fairness makes plain why partisan considerations have absolutely nothing to do with the quest of DC citizens for full democracy and absolutely no place in ensuring that S.51 moves forward in the 117th Congress.
“Together, with leaders from across America, we will keep pushing until DC’s tragic disenfranchisement is rectified,” she added.
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