Vote to occur the week of April 19.
Eleanor Holmes Norton, the non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives for the District of Columbia, said the House will vote on making the district the 51st state during the week of April 19.
“The week of April 19th the House will take a historic step in righting the monumental wrong of denying the 712,000 federal taxpaying American citizens who live in the nation’s capital voting representation in Congress and self-government without congressional interference into local affairs,” Norton said in a statement.
She said she expects the House to pass the bill. Under the plan, the new state would be called “Washington, Douglass Commonwealth,” named for Frederick Douglass.
The area around the White House, Capitol, Supreme Court, and National Mall would be carved out into a federal district controlled by Congress and named the “Capital.”
“Full and equal representation for the residents of the District of Columbia remains one of the major civil rights issues of our day,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyersaid in a statement Wednesday announcing the vote.
The legislation, named H.R. 51, already has 215 co-sponsors. The legislation is unlikely to receive the 60 votes it would need to pass in the Senate.
The Founding Fathers wrote provisions for the federal district into the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, that provides explicitly for a national capital that would not be part of a state or treated as a state, but rather a unique enclave under the exclusive authority of Congress.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For Congress as representation for the people who reside in the District of Columbia is considered.
- For the legislators to discern whether or not the District of Columbia can be made a state just by passing a law, or if a constitutional amendment would be required.
Sources: The Hill, Fox News, Washington Examiner
