House to vote on D.C. statehood for first time in 25 years - Polidicks

House to vote on D.C. statehood for first time in 25 years | wus.. House to vote on D.C. statehood for first time in 25 years WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives will take up a vote on D.C. statehood next week – the first time the chamber has voted on the issue in more than 25 years. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced Friday that the House is expected next week to debate and pass H.R. 1, the For the People Act of 2019, which, among other provisions, calls for statehood for the District of Columbia. The bill would also introduce voluntary public financing for campaigns, place stricter limitations on foreign lobbying, require states to use independent commissions to design their congressional districts and express support for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. If passed, the bill is unlikely to make any headway in the Republican-controlled Senate, but it would mark the first vote on D.C. statehood in a quarter-century and the first time either chamber of Congress has ever endorsed statehood for the nation’s capitol. Norton said in a statement Friday she believes that would generate momentum for her standalone bill, H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act. “Next week, Congress will take a historic step in righting the historic wrong of denying the 700,000 federal taxpaying American citizens who live in the nation’s capital equal voting rights and self-government without congressional interference into local affairs,” Norton said. “Passage of H.R. 1 is the first step in our effort to get a floor vote on the statehood bill this Congress.” Bills advocating for D.C. statehood have been introduced every year since 1993, but have never made it out of committee. Norton’s bill this year has garnered a record 198 cosponsors. A similar bill calling for D.C. statehood was introduced by Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) in the Senate on Thursday. From the text of the bill: Congress finds the following: (1) District of Columbia residents deserve full congressional voting rights and self-government, which only statehood can provide. (2) The 700,000 residents of the District of Columbia pay more Federal taxes per capita than residents of any State in the country, yet do not have full and equal representation in Congress and self-government. (3) Since the founding of the United States, the residents of the District of Columbia have always carried all the obligations of citizenship, including serving in all of the Nation’s wars and paying Federal taxes, all without voting representation on the floor in either Chamber of Congress or freedom from congressional interference in purely local matters. (4) There are no constitutional, historical, financial, or economic reasons why the 700,000 Americans who live in the District of Columbia should not be granted statehood. (5) The District of Columbia has a larger population than two States, Wyoming and Vermont, and is close to the population of the seven States that have a population of under one million fully represented residents. (6) The District of Columbia government has one of the strongest fiscal positions of any jurisdiction in the United States, with a $14,600,000,000 budget and a $2,700,000,000 general fund balance, or surplus. (7) The District of Columbia’s total personal income is higher than that of seven States, its per capita personal consumption expenditures is higher than those of any State, and its total personal consumption expenditures is greater than those of seven States. (8) Congress has authority under article IV, section 3, clause 1, which gives Congress power to admit new States to the Union, and Article I, Section 8, Clause 17, which grants Congress power over the seat of the Federal Government, to admit the new State carved out of the residential areas of the Federal seat of Government, while maintaining as the Federal seat of Government the United States Capitol Complex, the principal Federal monuments, Federal buildings and grounds, the National Mall, the White House and other Federal property.

Even if not Statehood, they should allow all territories/districts to vote and have representation. Also get rid of the electoral college.

can't wait for the "what do we do about the flag" question to completely derail this and prevent anything from getting done in a civil and practical manner

Funny how people will fuss about appearances a hell of a lot more than actual results

The 51 star flag has been designed and ready for use. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/134246/80b6b81e-7cef-46f5-8534-0cdce9c00cb0/image.png

That only applies when you add the not-White-people places, ie Puerto Rico.

just because there are a couple of sensible propositions for new flag designs doesn't mean some sweaty politician won't get all red in the face about "undermining iconic american symbols" and turning this in to a partisan issue last week we had people in congress saying the phrase "liar liar pants on fire." there is no place for reasonable expectations within this system anymore.

Isn't Puerto Rico mostly whites? Also DC is disproportionately filled with democrats so it might as well be filled with minorities as far as the GOP is concerned.

The designer of the US flag as it currently exists now submitted designs with equally-spaced stars for up to 62 states.

They speak Spanish though, so it doesn't count. I'm from Central Florida where there's a huge influx of Puerto Ricans mixing with good ol southern boys. It's been unrelenting complaining about how they're taking over and whites will be a minority in 3 years. That discussion has been going on for almost 15 years...

Won't pass the republican senate, it would just be more electoral votes for the dems, even if its marginal.

my point is that even if george washington himself crawled out of hell and presented 500 potential new designs for a perfect future-proofed american flag, someone in the government would find an excuse to turn this in to a partisan issue and get absolutely nothing done

dude... “According to 2017 Census Bureau data, the population of Washington, D.C., was 47.1% Black or African American, 45.1% White (36.8% non-Hispanic White), 4.3% Asian, 0.6% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. Individuals from two or more races made up 2.7% of the population.” DC is very very commonly known to be a very black city. It’s literally filled with minorities.

Maybe they'll compromise and allow it to pass only if the stars can be arranged into a giant "T" for Trump!

Oh yeah they don't have a voting representative what the shit.

Historically states were always added in ways to balance power, but now the last two potential ones are DC and Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is socially conservative but the Maria response will turn the state into a Democratic one. DC is literally 90% Democrats.