Plan to make Washington DC a state takes first step in Congress

Citizens in favor of Washington being the 51st State of the Union, outside the Capitol.MANDEL NGAN / AFP

The promoters of turning Washington DC into a new State of the Union seek to redraw the political map of the United States.

In the nation's capital, the District of Columbia, residents pay taxes, but are not represented by vote in either the House of Representatives or Congress.

This Thursday, the lower house approved the bill that will make it possible to convert Washington DC into a state by 216 votes in favor to 208 against.

But this process was not difficult. Nor was the same initiative last year. Last time he died in the Senate and it is very likely that exactly the same will happen with this one, since although the Democrats have 50 senators in the upper house (plus the qualified vote of Vice President Kamala Harris) it is practically impossible that they can avoid filibusterism and to obtain the necessary 60 votes. Even some Democratic senators aren't convinced that making the District of Columbia the 51st state in the nation is the best idea.

Democrats dare to take this step because of mounting pressure from residents in the District and because they have control of both Houses of Congress.

Even Joe Biden's White House has made its support known.

In a statement made public last Tuesday, the president of the United States described the current status of the capital as "an affront to the democratic values ​​on which our nation was founded."

The Biden Administration praised Washington as having "a robust economy, a rich culture and a diverse population that is entitled to equal and full participation in our democracy."

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The new legislation proposes the creation of a 51st State that guarantees a representative in the House and two senators. Only the White House, the US Capitol and the National Mall (where the various monuments to the presidents are located) will remain federal territory. The city's name will change to Washington, Douglass Commonwealth - in honor of the black abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who was born a slave in Maryland in 1817 and lived in Washington until his death in 1895.

To date, Washington has only had representation in the House of Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has no vote for which Thursday's vote is the culmination of a lifetime dedicated to that purpose.

"My service in Congress has been dedicated to achieving equality for the people I represent and that only statehood can bring," Norton stated.

"My life as a third generation Washingtonian has always been aimed at achieving that goal."

Norton has never stopped fighting, and on June 26, 2020, in a historic vote, the House of Representatives approved making Washington DC the 51st State in the Union.

The final result was 232 to 180. However, the law died in the Senate, then in Republican hands.

Many are the examples that show, for the defenders of statehood, the need to convert DC into a state: how badly it reacted to the pandemic; Former President Donald Trump to order the deployment of the National Guard during the peaceful protests of the Black rights movement; the lack of preparation and rapid response to the January 6 assault on the Capitol. The District lacks a Governor, it only has a mayor.

But opponents of the status change argue that the Founding Fathers wanted the capital to be clearly separated from the rest of the states.

It was the neighboring states of Maryland and Virginia that gave up land in the 1780s for the creation of a federal capital along the Potomac River.

Washington, the District of Columbia, thus became the permanent capital of the United States in 1790. Republicans also fear that joining Washington as one more state to the Union would imply an increase of two Democratic senators, since the population of that area vote for that party.

Washington's population is larger than Wyoming or Vermont and is estimated at just over 712,000 residents who pay federal taxes, vote in presidential elections, and serve in the Army, but have no vote in Congress.

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