2021 -- H 5609

========

LC001484

========

     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2021

____________

H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

SUPPORTING FEDERAL LEGISLATION GRANTING STATEHOOD TO THE PEOPLE OF

WASHINGTON, D.C.

     

     Introduced By: Representatives Kislak, Speakman, Donovan, Potter, Ajello, Carson,
Ruggiero, and Cortvriend

     Date Introduced: February 16, 2021

     Referred To: House Judiciary

1

     WHEREAS, The people living on the land that would eventually be designated as the

2

District of Columbia were provided the right to vote for representation in Congress when the

3

United States Constitution was ratified in 1788; and

4

     WHEREAS, The passage of the Organic Act of 1801 placed the District of Columbia

5

under the exclusive authority of the United States Congress and abolished residents’ right to vote

6

for members of Congress and the President and Vice President of the United States; and

7

     WHEREAS, Residents of the District of Columbia were granted the right to vote for the

8

President and Vice President through passage of the Twenty–Third Amendment to the United

9

States Constitution in 1961; and

10

     WHEREAS, As of 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau data estimates that the District of

11

Columbia’s population at approximately 712,000 residents is comparable to the populations of

12

Wyoming (582,000), Vermont (623,000), Alaska (731,000), and North Dakota (765,000); and

13

     WHEREAS, Residents of the District of Columbia share all the responsibilities of United

14

States citizenship, including paying more federal taxes than residents of 22 states, service on

15

federal juries, and defending the United States as members of the United States armed forces in

16

every war since the War for Independence, yet they are denied full representation in Congress;

17

and

18

     WHEREAS, The residents of the District of Columbia themselves have endorsed

19

statehood for the District of Columbia and passed a District–wide referendum on November 8,

 

1

2016, which favored statehood by 86 percent; and

2

     WHEREAS, No other democratic nation denies the right of self–government, including

3

participation in its national legislature, to the residents of its capital; and

4

     WHEREAS, The residents of the District of Columbia lack full democracy, equality, and

5

citizenship enjoyed by the residents of the 50 states; and

6

     WHEREAS, The United States Congress has repeatedly interfered with the District of

7

Columbia’s limited self–government by enacting laws that affect the District of Columbia’s

8

expenditure of its locally raised tax revenue, including barring the usage of locally raised revenue,

9

thus violating the fundamental principle that states and local governments are best suited to enact

10

legislation that represents the will of its citizens; and

11

     WHEREAS, Although the District of Columbia has passed consecutive balanced budgets

12

since FY1997, it still faces the possibility of being shut down yearly because of Congressional

13

deliberations over the federal budget; and

14

     WHEREAS, District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Delaware U.S.

15

Senator Tom Carper introduced in the 117th Congress H.R. 51 and S. 51, the Washington, D.C.

16

Admission Act, that provides that the State of Washington, D.C. would have all the rights of

17

citizenship as taxpaying American citizens, including two Senators and at least one House

18

member; and

19

     WHEREAS, The United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on the United

20

States Congress to address the District of Columbia’s lack of political equality, and the

21

Organization of American States has declared the disenfranchisement of the District of Columbia

22

residents a violation of its charter agreement, to which the United States is a signatory; now,

23

therefore be it

24

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island hereby

25

supports admitting Washington, D.C. into the Union as a State of the United States of America;

26

and be it further

27

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

28

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the Majority Leader of the United States

29

Senate, the Minority Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House

30

of Representatives, the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, Senator

31

Jack Reed, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Representative James Langevin, Representative David

32

Cicilline, and the President of Students for D.C. Statehood.

========

LC001484

========

 

LC001484 - Page 2 of 2