2021 -- S 0751

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LC002561

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2021

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S E N A T 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: Senators Valverde, and Goldin

     Date Introduced: March 30, 2021

     Referred To: Recommended for Immediate Consideration

     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 Twenty-Third 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

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

     WHEREAS, Residents of the District of Columbia share all 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 FY1997, 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, which had historically passed the

House on June 26, 2020, during the 116th Congress, 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 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, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island 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 Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution 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, Senator

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

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

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