The Biden administration made a formal statement Tuesday (April 20) supporting Washington, D.C., as the 51st state of the United States and urging Congress to pass H.R. 51. The House of Representatives will vote on D.C. statehood legislation this week.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said the Biden administration “strongly supports” statehood legislation for Washington, D.C., which would give D.C. two new Senate seats and one House seat.
The statement from the White House OMB office said the longstanding denial of full representation in the U.S. Congress to more than 700,000 D.C. residents is an affront to the democratic values upon which America was founded.
“H.R. 51 would right this wrong by making Washington, D.C., a state and providing its residents with long overdue full representation in Congress, while maintaining a federal district that will continue to be the seat of the national government.” The statement said.
On the same day that Biden issued his statement of support, the House began a series of votes to approve H.R. 51.
Washington, D.C., officials and Democrats have framed the statehood issue as one of historical disenfranchisement of residents. But Republicans have been adamantly opposed to statehood in D.C. and say it is an unconstitutional effort by Democrats to seize control of the Senate with the intention of using D.C. as a reason to add two Democratic congressional senators to this Democratic-occupied spot.
Republicans argue that Washington, D.C., was created on constitutional grounds, so any changes to the District must come in the form of a constitutional amendment, not legislation by Congress.
But the Biden administration said Congress has the power to expand D.C. and called on it to do so “to provide a prompt and orderly transition to statehood.
Under the plan, the 51st state would be called “Washington, Douglass Commonwealth,” covering 66 of the 68 square miles of the current federal district.
H.R. 51 currently has the support of 215 lawmakers, almost all of whom are Democrats. The Senate version of the bill, S.51, was introduced by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Delaware), and 44 of the 50 Democrats in the Senate have endorsed the proposal, including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
However, because of the lengthy debate (filibuster) rule, the bill needs 60 votes to move forward, so without Republican support, the bill will die again in the Senate.
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