HF 2457

as introduced - 92nd Legislature (2021 - 2022) Posted on 04/22/2021 12:53am

A House resolution
urging Congress to pass federal legislation granting statehood to the people of
Washington, D.C.

WHEREAS, the people living on the land that would eventually be designated as the District
of Columbia were provided the right to vote for representation in Congress when the United States
Constitution was ratified in 1788; and

WHEREAS, the passage of the Organic Act of 1801 placed the District of Columbia under
the exclusive authority of the United States Congress and abolished residents' right to vote for
members of Congress and the President and Vice President of the United States; and

WHEREAS, residents of the District of Columbia were granted the right to vote for the
President and Vice President through passage of the 23rd Amendment to the United States
Constitution in 1961; and

WHEREAS, as of 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau data estimates that the District of Columbia's
population at approximately 712,000 residents is comparable to the populations of Alaska (731,000),
North Dakota (765,000), Vermont (623,000), and Wyoming (582,000); and

WHEREAS, residents of the District of Columbia share all of the responsibilities of United
States citizenship, including paying more federal taxes than residents of 22 states, service on federal
juries, and defending the United States as members of the United States armed forces in every war
since the War for Independence, yet they are denied full representation in Congress; and

WHEREAS, the residents of the District of Columbia themselves have endorsed statehood
for the District of Columbia and passed a district-wide referendum on November 8, 2016, which
favored statehood by 86 percent; and

WHEREAS, no other democratic nation denies the right of self-government, including
participation in its national legislature, to the residents of its capital; and

WHEREAS, the residents of the District of Columbia lack full democracy, equality, and
citizenship enjoyed by the residents of the 50 states; and

WHEREAS, the United States Congress has repeatedly interfered with the District of
Columbia's limited self-government by enacting laws that affect the District of Columbia's
expenditure of its locally raised tax revenue, including barring the usage of locally raised revenue,
thus violating the fundamental principle that states and local governments are best suited to enact
legislation that represents the will of its citizens; and

WHEREAS, although the District of Columbia has passed consecutive balanced budgets
since fiscal year 1997, it still faces the possibility of being shut down yearly because of Congressional
deliberations over the federal budget; and

WHEREAS, District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Delaware U.S.
Senator Tom Carper introduced in the 117th Congress H.R. 51 and S. 51, the Washington, D.C.
Admission Act, that provides that the State of Washington, D.C. would have all the rights of
citizenship as taxpaying American citizens, including two Senators and at least one House of
Representatives member; and

WHEREAS, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on the United States
Congress to address the District of Columbia's lack of political equality, and the Organization of
American States has declared the disenfranchisement of the District of Columbia residents a violation
of its charter agreement, to which the United States is a signatory; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the State of Minnesota that it hereby
supports admitting Washington, D.C. into the Union as a State of the United States of America;
and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives is
directed to prepare an enrolled copy of this resolution, to be authenticated by his signature and that
of the Speaker, and transmit it to the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Minority
Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the
Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, and Minnesota's Senators and
Representatives in Congress.