House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, April 22, passed a bill on a party-line basis to make Washington, D.C., the 51st state of the United States.
In a 216-208 vote on a party-line vote, the House approved the legislation. If also passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Biden, Washington, D.C., would gain two additional members of Congress. Because of this, all Republican lawmakers opposed the bill, while all Democrats favored it.
Republicans say granting Washington state status is contrary to the Constitution.
Republican Rep. James Comer (R-Okla.) said, “Every Justice Department from President Kennedy to President Obama agreed that the Constitution needed to be amended before statehood could be granted in the District.”
A Justice Department study from that period found that “a constitutional amendment was needed before the District of Columbia could join the Union as a state.”
Comer noted that the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution gives the District of Washington the same treatment as a state. In general elections, the state of Washington has three electoral votes. In addition, Congress authorized Washington residents, in 1970, to elect one non-voting House representative.
Speaking before the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House was prepared to “correct a historic injustice by passing legislation that would finally grant statehood to Washington, D.C.”
Pelosi said, “Washington, D.C. residents have fought for 220 years for the right to vote and self-government, and a full 86 percent recently voted for statehood …… The time has come to give them the rights they’ve been fighting for and that they deserve. And President Biden supports this legislation.”
Republicans say part of the motivation for Democrats to support Washington as a state is that it would almost guarantee two more Democratic senators and more Democrats in the House. And Washington, D.C., voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in the election.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor that “people who blame or denigrate this bill are racists because the racial makeup of the district is 47 percent black.”
House Democrats passed a Washington statehood bill in the last Congress, but the Republican-controlled Senate did not vote on the bill.
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