Not if that entire federal government was born and raised in raised in other states and only moved to Virginia for a job with the government, having never seen a Tabbacco plant in their life. What huge perks has the average DC resident reaped from their hosting the govenment. Near as i can tell the average lawmaker seethes with contempt for the residents of DC and goes out to their way to spend as little time their as possible.
But even supposing you were right and the guy who sells hotdogs outside of Lefant plaza wields undue power on the national power by virtue of his place of residence. How much of a difference is there going to be if that person is also allowed access to his own personal Senators and voting representative in Congress? If the laws against fracking or Tobacco were going to be over turned because all of the law makers residence, then they would be over turned whether or not those residents could also vote. The two are entirely unrelated. If your worried about undue resdiental influence you need to de-centralize the federal offices, not cut off voting rights.
Exapno I’m honestly confused. If DC has representation in the House and two Senators and chooses their head executive (although nominally governed by Congress) then how do they not have power like every state? In that scenario what can state do that DC couldn’t (except elect the President in the House because that happens a lot)?
I’m unclear what you’re objecting to. My post was purely in response to Ponderoid’s proposal. Having DC residents scatter their votes randomly throughout 50 states makes them meaningless. They cannot affect any decisions anywhere. They would not have an actual representative in Congress looking out for their interests. They would not be eligible for the money that is doled out state by state. They would not get to choose their own laws.
Representation is a large complex of responsibilities and rewards. Reducing it to the matter of getting a vote for President is destroying the notion and removing all the rewards. I’m against it.
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes (D-DC) just tweeted that she has 208 so-sponsors for DC statehood.
No certainties yet, for sure, but this appears to have moved into the “now viable” category of possibilities. Especially if Senate Dems man up and nuke the filibuster. Time for Dems to recognize that they have the majority of the country behind them and do the right things.
The House wasn’t the issue anyways. The bill will pass there with 220 or 221 votes. The tiny new glimmer of optimism is that the change of control in the Senate has moved the chances there away from the former 0.00%. Maybe not very far, but anything is better than zero. (If the bill somehow came up for final passage in the Senate, I think it would definitely get the bare 50 needed, or maybe even 51 since Lisa Murkowski has repeatedly expressed lukewarm openness toward the idea, but the filibuster is the gigantic elephant in the room.)
Is it possible for DC to become a state by ordinary statute without a constitutional amendment? How do the proposals deal with the 23rd amendment which grants three electors to the federal district?
The laws for those three electoral votes are made by Congress (in the same way that state electors are controlled by the state legislatures) and the bill that passed the House last year (and presumably is the basis for any efforts this year) would simply repeal any provision for their election. It would also provide for expedited consideration of a constitutional amendment repealing the 23rd Amendment, but until and unless that happened those three electors would simply not be elected. The remaining capital district would have no legal residents, with anyone physically residing in its boundaries being assigned to their last state.
The United States House of Representatives decided yesterday that DC can and should be a state.
There appears to be five Dem senators still unwilling to commit to voting for statehood. I hope they don’t miss the twofold opportunity of doing the right thing while sticking it to the GOP at the same time.
