D.C. statehood bill advances to House floor; likely to pass for first time in history
D.C. statehood bill advances to House floor; likely to pass for first time in history
(32 minutes later)
BREAKING: A House committee on Tuesday advanced a D.C. statehood bill to the floor for the first time since 1993, bringing advocates closer to their goal of making the nation’s capital the 51st state.
A divided House committee on Tuesday advanced a D.C. statehood bill to the floor for the first time in nearly three decades, bringing advocates closer to their goal of making the nation’s capital the 51st state.
The bill has a good chance of passing the House because Democrats have a solid majority and the cause of statehood has become a darling of leadership, national civil rights groups and presidential candidates.
The bill has a good chance of passing the House of Representatives, because Democrats have a solid majority and the cause of statehood has become a darling of Democratic leaders, national civil rights groups and presidential candidates.
“It is fitting that this historic vote happened in the midst of Black History Month, for I dare say – achieving D.C. statehood would be black history,” Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said in a statement.
But it faces almost certain death in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has made the bill a priority, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), last year reversed his long-standing opposition to statehood.
“It is fitting that this historic vote happened in the midst of Black History Month, for I dare say — achieving D.C. statehood would be black history,” Mayor Muriel E. Bowser said in a statement.
The one time the House voted on statehood, in 1993, it failed 277 to 153, with support from only 60 percent of Democrats and one Republican.
A plurality of the overwhelmingly Democratic city’s approximately 700,000 residents are African American.
Even if the bill passes this time, however, it is unlikely to even get a vote in the Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) opposes statehood because the new state would probably add two Democratic senators, strengthening their power in the narrowly divided chamber.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made D.C. statehood a priority shortly after she took over leading the chamber last year, and House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.)reversed his long-standing opposition to the concept in May.
The temporary victory for statehood advocates came after Democrats and Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform spent more than six hours debating the bill.
The one time the House voted on statehood, in 1993, it failed 277 to 153, with support from 60 percent of Democrats and one Republican. Now, the bill has 223 co-sponsors and is considered a civil rights litmus test for the party’s left flank.
Republicans on the committee tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to impose restrictions related to abortion and immigration and to relax gun laws in the proposed new state and federal enclave. Statehood advocates reacted with outrage and chagrin.
When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) cast her committee vote in favor of the legislation on Tuesday, she was emphatic: “Absolutely, yes.”
This is a developing story that will be updated. An earlier version of the story is below.
“For such a historic achievement for the District of Columbia, the only message I can convey is gratitude,” said D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the city’s nonvoting representative and the lead sponsor of the bill. “We have only one last hill to climb in the House — onward to the House floor!”
Republicans on Tuesday tried to change a D.C. statehood bill to wipe out gun laws in what would be a new federal enclave and punish any doctor in the proposed new state who fails to provide medical care to a child born alive after an attempted abortion.
The bill is unlikely to even get a vote in the Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) strongly opposes statehood, in part because a new state would probably add two Democratic senators.
The amendments came during a House Committee on Oversight and Reform committee meeting to consider a bill that would make D.C. the 51st state.
Democrats and Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform spent more than six hours debating the bill, which would shrink the seat of the federal government to a two-square-mile enclave, encompassing the White House, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court and other federal buildings.
Final votes are set for later today, but Democrats who hold a majority of committee seats pushed back on more than a half dozen amendments offered by Republicans, who oppose D.C. statehood on ideological, fiscal and constitutional grounds.
The rest of the District would become the state of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, after the famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who lived in Washington for the last part of his life.
Democrats are expected to advance the bill to a vote on the House floor, with the support of House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the committee chair.
“The United States is a democracy, but its capital is not,” Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), the committee chair, said before the meeting.
The statehood bill, introduced by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District’s nonvoting representative in Congress, would shrink the seat of the federal government to a two-square-mile enclave, encompassing the White House, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court and other federal buildings.
Republicans — who oppose D.C. statehood on ideological, fiscal and constitutional grounds — introduced amendments that would impose restrictions related to abortion, immigration and gun laws on the proposed new state and federal enclave.
The rest of the District would become known as the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, after the famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who lived in Washington for the last part of his life.
All 15 were defeated on party-line votes.
“The United States is a democracy, but its capital is not,” Maloney said Tuesday before the meeting.
Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), the ranking Republican on the committee, argued that only a constitutional amendment, ratified by two-thirds of states, could create a state — not mere legislation.
Even if the bill passes the majority-Democratic chamber, it almost certainly will go no further. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he opposes statehood in part because the move would probably add two Democratic senators, strengthening their power in the narrowly divided chamber.
“You want to form a 51st state, then knock yourself out,” added Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.). “Follow the constitutionally mandated process to make that happen.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), the top-ranked Republican on the Oversight Committee, said at the start of the marathon hearing that only a constitutional amendment, ratified by two third of states, can create a new state – not mere legislation.
Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), a constitutional law professor and longtime statehood proponent, countered that after the 13 original colonies, the United States admitted 37 states by a simple act of Congress, which is how Democrats propose to make D.C. a state.
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) agreed.
Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) offered an amendment based on the federal Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act, which she said was necessary after Gov. Ralph Northam (D-Va.) made comments last year that Republicans interpreted to mean he favored infanticide. Northam strongly rejected that interpretation.
“Our Constitution is clear,” Higgins said. “You want to form a 51st state, then knock yourself out. Follow the constitutionally mandated process to make that happen.”
Norton called Miller’s proposal “unprecedented.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a constitutional law professor and longtime statehood proponent, countered that after the 13 original colonies, the United States admitted 37 states by a simple act of Congress, which is what Democrats propose to make D.C. a state.
The gentlelady wants to legislate for the new state before it is a new state,” Norton said. “The whole point of this process is to give the new state the right to decide its own laws.”
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wisc.) said D.C. should not be a state because it is “largely a government city with a little bit of tourism connected to the buildings around it,” eliciting laughter from the hometown crowd.
Republicans also offered amendments that would wipe out gun laws in the new federal enclave and force the new state to cooperate with federal immigration agencies.
In response, Raskin said all federal workers, civilian and military, deserve federal representation. He noted that 93 percent of federal workers live outside the District.
Raskin called such amendments an affront to D.C. residents’ right to self-determination.
Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) offered an amendment based on the federal Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act, which she said was necessary after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D), a pediatric neurologist, made comments last year that Republicans interpreted to mean he favored infanticide. Democrats called the interpretation ridiculous.
“Please do not use their drive for statehood as an opportunity to finger-paint and scrawl graffiti all over their state constitution with your pet political agendas,” he said.
Norton calls Miller’s proposal “unprecedented.”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) questioned why the proposed new state would include the Trump International Hotel, in the former Old Post Office building, but exclude the FBI headquarters on the opposite side of the street. Both are in buildings owned by the General Services Administration.
“The gentlelady wants to legislate for the new state before it is a new state,” Norton said. “The whole point of this process is to give the new state the right to decide it’s own laws.”
He said statehood advocates were seeking tax revenue generated by the Trump hotel, and offered an amendment that would make all contiguous federally owned buildings part of the in the federal enclave, not the new state.
Raskin called amendments about abortion and firearms an affront to D.C. residents’ right to self-determination.
Republicans also seized on a scandal involving D.C. Council member Jack Evans, who resigned last month before his colleagues could expel him from office over repeated ethics violations. (Evans is now running for his old seat.)
“Please do not use their drive for statehood as an opportunity to finger paint and scrawl graffiti all over their state constitution with your pet political agendas,” he said.
Jordan and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) have written to Maloney asking for a hearing to examine Evans’s “disturbing ethical transgressions as the WMATA Board Chair and a D.C. Council member.”
Jordan said Miller’s amendments were about “fundamental liberties ... We’re talking about protecting the sanctity of human life… And, of course, that important second amendment.”
Norton replied that over the past decade, the Department of Justice has prosecuted corruption in every state represented by Republicans on the committee.
Norton’s bill establishes a Statehood Transition Commission that would have up to two years to work out how and when the new state would disentangle itself from the federal government. The federal government pays an estimated $1.5 billion to $2 billion to fund Medicaid in the city and much of its criminal justice system, including the courts, prison services and supervision of offenders after their release.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) questioned why the proposed new state would include the Trump International Hotel, in the former Old Post Office building, but exclude the FBI headquarters. Both are in buildings owned by the General Services Administration.
He offered an amendment that would make all contiguous federally-owned buildings part of the in the federal enclave, not the new state.
“[Democrats] have been hating on the Trump International Hotel, and they say it’s not as profitable as promised,” Massie said in an interview Monday. “If it’s such a liability, why do they want it? Clearly they recognize good use of property when they see it.”
All the amendments failed in a voice vote, but Republicans requested recorded votes, which will happen near the end of the meeting.
A Gallup poll released in July found a clear majority of Americans — 64 percent — do not think the nation’s capital should attain statehood, compared with 29 percent who support the idea.
An October Washington Post-University of Maryland poll found 51 percent of Maryland residents favor making the District a separate state, compared with 40 percent who are opposed. A full 57 percent opposed making the District a new county in their state, a plan called “retrocession,” the poll found.
Statehood opponents were handed a potent bit of ammunition last month when longtime D.C. Council member Jack Evans resigned before his colleagues could expel him from office over repeated ethics violations. (Evans is now running for his old seat.)
“Fully understanding Evans’s disturbing ethical transgressions as the WMATA Board Chair and a D.C. Council member is a necessary precondition to the committee considering legislation related to D.C. statehood,” Jordan and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-S.C.) wrote in a letter to Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), the committee chair.
Democrats counter that every state can point to an elected official who has committed ethics violations.
Last week, for example, an Arlington County Board member resigned from the Metro board after failing to repay a $10,000 campaign donation from Metro’s biggest labor union.
If perfect ethics were a challenge to statehood, “we would have zero states,” said Bo Shuff, who leads the statehood advocacy group D.C. Vote.
“The D.C. process worked,” he said. “There were accusations, [Evans’s] peers took actions they thought were responsible, and he resigned. Accountability is what matters.”
Scott Clement contributed to this report.
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