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Washington, DC Admission Act

Announced in	the 116th United States Congress
Number of co-sponsors	227
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 51 by Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) on January 3, 2019 Committee consideration by House Oversight and Reform Committee; House Rules Committee Passed the House on June 26, 2020 (232–180)

The Washington, DC Admission Act, often referred to simply as the DC Admission Act, is a bill introduced during the 116th United States Congress. The intention of the bill is to grant Washington, DC admission into the Union as a state.

Background

When the Constitution of the United States was prepared, one of the elements within its text provided for the establishment of a national capital. The new capital was to be no more than 10 square miles in area, and under the exclusive control of the federal government, rather than subject to any control by the states. In 1790, the United States Congress passed the Residence Act, which legislated for the foundation of a new, permanent national capital, to be located along the banks of the Potomac River, using land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia for the purpose. The area was a square shape, with each side 10 miles long, providing a total area of 100 square miles, and included both the new city being constructed along the north bank of the Potomac, which was named 'Washington' in honour of George Washington, as well as the towns of Georgetown, Maryland and Alexandria, Virginia. The area as a whole, which came to be called the federal district, was named 'Columbia', after a poetic name for the United States. In 1801, Congress passed the District of Columbia Organic Act, which formally placed the District of Columbia under the control of the federal government. The District was also organised into two counties; Washington to the north and east of the river, and Alexandria to the south and west. The Act meant that citizens living in the District were no longer considered to be residents of either Maryland or Virginia and, as a consequence, lost their representation in the United States Congress, their right to vote in the Electoral College and any voice in amending the Constitution.

Since the passage of the District of Columbia Organic Act, there have been many attempts to extend the right to suffrage to residents of the District, which have largely focused on amending the Constitution, or ceding the land making up its area back to Maryland and Virginia. In 1846, the area of the District south of the Potomac was successfully returned to Virginia, leaving it encompassing the northern half. However, it wasn't until 1961 and the passage of the 23rd Amendment that residents of the District were granted the right to vote in the presidential election. This treated the District as if it were a state for the purposes of the Electoral College, granting it an equal number of electors to the least populous state. In 1970, Congress passed the District of Columbia Delegate Act, which allowed for the election of a single, non-voting delegate representing the District to be elected to the House of Representatives. In 1973, Congress then passed the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which granted the District a measure of home rule through the establishment of an elected mayor and city council.

In 1978, a new constitutional amendment was proposed that would have granted the District full representation in Congress and the Electoral College, as well as participation in the process to amend the Constitution, as if it were a state, without granting it actual statehood. Introduced by Representative Don Edwards of California, the legislation passed Congress when the Senate approved it on 22 August 1978, requiring it then go to the states for ratification. However, included in the text of the amendment was a requirement that it complete the ratification process (meaning three-quarters of the states were required to ratify it) within seven years. By the deadline given, which was 22 August 1985, only 16 of the required 38 states had ratified the amendment, meaning that failed to be adopted. The failure of the Voting Rights Amendment saw the beginning of concerted efforts to bring about statehood for the District.

DC Statehood movement

Main article: Statehood movement in the District of Columbia

Even before the failure of the Voting Rights Amendment, voters in the District began looking at the statehood option. In 1980, voters approved the creation of a constitutional convention to meet and draw up a proposed constitution for a new state, in the same manner as other territories had prior to their admission as states. This was ratified by voters in 1982, with the plan for a state named as 'New Columbia'. This constitution mandates the selection of a shadow congressional delegation of two senators and a representative to lobby Congress for statehood. In November 1993, a statehood bill made it to the full House of Representatives for debate and a vote for the first time, where it was defeated by 277 votes to 153. Since then, a statehood bill was introduced every year without reaching a vote.

In 2016, the Mayor of the District, Muriel Bowser, called for a vote by residents on whether they approved of the proposal of admitting the District as a state. In November of the same year, a referendum was held in which 85.69% of those that voted approved the motion to petition Congress for admission. Following this, the City Council passed a resolution changing the proposed name from 'New Columbia' (which had been on the ballot), to 'State of Washington, DC', with 'DC' standing for 'Douglass Commonwealth', referring to Frederick Douglass, who lived in the District between 1877 and 1895. In 2017, separate bills were introduced by the District's non-voting Delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Tom Carper, a senator from Delaware, for statehood, which again failed to reach a vote.

In 2019, following the 2018 election that saw the Democratic Party regain control of the House of Representatives, the Democratic leadership put its support behind the admission of the District as a state, with Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, one of the 155 co-sponsors of the Bill introduced by Eleanor Holmes Norton in January 2019. The House passed HR.1, a nonbinding resolution of support for statehood, in March 2019.

In June 2020, during the George Floyd protests that were taking place across the country, President Trump called in the District of Columbia National Guard to clear protesters, an action that angered the District's mayor and council; owing to the District's status, the President of the United States is commander-in-chief of the National Guard, whereas in a state the commander-in-chief is the state's governor. On 26 June 2020, for the first time ever, DC Statehood was approved by a chamber of Congress, when the House voted by 232 to 180 to approve the Washington, DC Admission Act, thereby sending it to the Senate.

Provisions

The Washington, DC Admission Act would see a number of individual provisions related to the new state's admission:

• The existing area of the District of Columbia into the union as the 51st state. The new state would be renamed as 'Washington, Douglass Commonwealth'.
• A new federal district would be created within the boundaries of the new state. To be called the 'Capital', the new district would encompass the White House, United States Capitol, United States Supreme Court Building, the principal federal buildings, and other federal monuments adjacent to the Capitol and the National Mall.
• The John A. Wilson Building is excluded from the Capital, as it would serve as the state capitol.
• The new state would receive two members of the Senate and one member of the House of Representatives. This would expand membership of the House to 436 until the next census, when reapportionment would work out the number of representatives the new state would be entitled to based on its population.
• The District of Columbia Delegate Act would be repealed.
• An expedited process would be put in motion to introduce and ratify a new constitutional amendment repealing the 23rd Amendment.
• Those resident in the Capital would be permitted to vote in the last state they resided in.
• The current local representatives (Mayor and City Council) would transition to become the new state's Governor and State Legislature.

Opinion

A snap poll of registered voters, conducted by YouGov following the passing of the bill by the House of Representatives, found opinion remained divided on the issue, with 40% in favour of DC's admission as a state and 41% opposed. In this poll, 37% of respondents believed that admitting DC would favour Democrats over Republicans, although 30% felt it would benefit both parties equally. A poll undertaken subsequent to this, in September 2020 by Data for Progress found that support for statehood was at 43%, which had increased by seven per-cent on a previous poll by the same group in March 2019.

Voting for the bill in the House of Representatives was along party lines, with Democrats in favour of admitting the District of Columbia as a state and Republicans opposed. In a response to the passing of the bill in the House, a number of Republican members of the Senate labelled the legislation as a "power grab" as, in their view, it would give the Democrats an almost guaranteed two seats in the United States Senate, given that the District has voted overwhelmingly Democrat for decades. The Trump Administration also made clear that, were a bill admitting DC as a state to be passed by Congress, he would veto it. The election of Joe Biden as President removed the threat of a presidential veto to such a bill, as Biden has declared his support to admitting DC. However, Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, made it clear that, while there remains a Republican majority in the Senate, any DC admission bill would not be granted a vote on the floor of the Senate. This would require the introduction of a new bill once the new session of Congress begins in January 2021.