Providing for Consideration of H.R. Washington, D.C. Admission Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. Access to Counsel Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants Act; and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend for yielding and for his support of H.R. 51.

The rule before us is not ordinary. It is the prelude to history, and I use that word advisedly. Last Congress, the House passed the D.C. statehood bill, the first time either Chamber of Congress had passed the bill. This Congress with Democrats controlling the House, Senate, and White House, D.C. statehood is within reach for the first time in history.

As a result of education from House proceedings like today's, 54 percent of the American people support D.C. statehood according to a wide-ranging poll that has just been released, and we predict that with increasing exposure, that percentage will continue to rise.

For the 220 years since D.C. became our capital, District residents, who have had all of the obligations of citizenship, including paying full Federal taxes and serving in the Armed Forces, have been excluded from much of American democracy. The citizens who live in our Nation's Capital have never had voting representation on the floor of either Chamber of Congress, and Congress has always had the final say on their local affairs. This is uniquely un-American. It is undemocratic.

For me, it is deeply personal. My own family has lived in D.C. since my great-grandfather Richard Holmes as a slave walked away from a plantation in Virginia and made his way to D.C. almost 200 years ago. Richard Holmes made it as far as D.C., a walk to freedom but not to equal citizenship so far for our family.

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Ms. NORTON. During debate on D.C. statehood Thursday, we will make the case that Congress has the constitutional authority to admit the State of Washington, D.C., and that the State would meet all the elements Congress has considered in admission decisions.

For now, it is sufficient to note that throughout its existence in the United States the United States has flattered itself as a democracy, even though it is the only democratic country that denies voting representation in the national legislature to the residents of the capital. With passage of this rule today and the D.C. statehood bill on Thursday, the United States will be one step closer to deserving the term democracy.

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