We have a chance to make history this year by getting Maine’s federal delegation to support admitting Washington, D.C. as our 51st state. I see no moral grounds on which anyone can say that 700,000-plus taxpaying D.C. residents should not have the same rights as every Maine voter. We have two senators and two representatives. Based on population, they should have two senators and one representative.
President Biden’s inauguration featured a field of flags to represent the hundreds of thousands of Americans who couldn’t attend or observe the festivities because of the pandemic. This somber Field of Flags was then illuminated for 46 seconds — for the 46th president — by 56 pillars of light, representing all Americans.
Arizona House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding wrote what turned out to be a prophetic guest column.
He was making the case for Washington, D.C., to receive statehood and full congressional representation, which has little to do with Arizona legislation right now.
In the coming days, members of Congress will be voting on an important piece of legislation called the For the People Act (HR1 and S1) that will modernize our democracy and take it from fragile to functional. Every Democrat in the House has co-sponsored the bill, and in 2019 then Congressman Anthony Brindisi voted for it. It is with high hopes yet low expectations that our current member of Congress would put partisanship aside and vote yes on HR1 given her past voting record and rhetoric.
Sen. Tom Carper, D-Delaware, senior member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and longtime lead author of legislation to make Washington, D.C., the 51st state, objected March 3 on the Senate floor to Sen. Mike Lee’s, R-Utah, joint resolution to overturn a local law passed by the duly elected D.C. Council.
In his speech, Carper emphasized the need to finally grant Washington, D.C., residents equal and fair representation in Congress.
When I was first elected in 2015, I was the only Black lawmaker at the Arizona Legislature. I was quickly inundated with calls and letters from Black people all over the state who saw my presence at the Capitol as representation for all Black Arizonans, not just my constituents in District 27.
Just as quickly, I came to see the importance of that representation.
Today, the Senate Rules Committee and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee convened the first congressional hearing examining the security failures that enabled a mob supporting former President Donald Trump to overrun the U.S. Capitol on January 6. At the hearing, senators heard testimony from four officials, three of whom resigned following the attack: former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger, former House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving, former U.S. Capitol Police Chief (USCP) Steven Sund and Robert Contee, acting chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
It was hardly surprising to see the Senate acquit former President Donald Trump despite the overwhelming evidence presented against him at his brief impeachment trial. But our senators Susan Collins and Angus King deserve credit for listening to the strong accounts presented and voting to convict on the charge of inciting the January 6 assault on the capitol.
After the insurrection at the Capitol building, when District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser's plea for aid from the National Guard was delayed because the Pentagon, not the mayor of D.C., oversees the District's force, calls for statehood for Washington, D.C., became urgent. If D.C. was a state, the request for National Guard help would have been considered by a governor, not the Pentagon acting on behalf of the commander in chief who had incited the violence.
Washingtonians have many reasons to be mad as hell about their lack of autonomy—former President Donald Trump’s ability to deploy the city’s own National Guard to suppress a crowd of peaceful protesters, over the objections of Mayor Muriel Bowser, is one that immediately comes to mind. But the fight for self-determination is not just motivated by the events of the past year, when the threat of Trump taking control of the D.C. police sometimes felt imminent.
As a doctor who cared for Covid-19 patients at Elmhurst Hospital when we were hit hard this past spring, I know all too well that in a crisis you prioritize treatment for those who need help the most. In 2021, we are faced with the reality that Covid-19 laid bare in 2020: The pandemic has disproportionately affected New York’s black and brown populations. This trend is not unique to our community. All over the country where white neighborhoods are spared, minorities suffer. One particular place this is felt is our nation’s capital, Washington, DC.
Congress has the express constitutional power to add new states to our nation by enacting simple legislation, a power it has used repeatedly throughout history. It should exercise this power to make Washington, D.C. the 51st state, ensuring that Americans living in the District of Columbia have full voting rights, political representation in Congress, and control over their local affairs. Bills recently introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate provide a vehicle to bring democracy to our nation’s capital.
I was born in Racine and I moved for work and to improve my living situation. I live in a place with a city council and mayor, we pay taxes and we actually end up paying more per capita to the feds than any state in the nation. We are occupied by a government that we don’t have a say in. My home’s name is shorthand for the occupier, the federal government or what locals call ‘Washington.’ I live in DC.
