Washington, D.C. Admission Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon, along with several of our colleagues, to discuss the need to end the policy of taxation without representation, which millions of Americans in the District of Columbia have endured for over 200 years and hundreds of thousands still endure today.

This policy was wrong in 1776, when 13 colonies took on the mightiest nation on Earth to end it. It is wrong today, and we seek to end it through the enactment of S. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act.

In just 6 days, our country will observe Memorial Day, a holiday often observed to mark the start of summer. We celebrate it to mark the start of summer. But on Memorial Day of this year, many of us will pause to remember the generations of Americans in our Armed Forces who have laid down their lives for our country. That is what Memorial Day is all about. This day means something special in my own family. My own maternal grandmother was a Gold Star mother.

With the death of John McCain, I am the last Vietnam veteran serving in the U.S. Senate.

The names of some 58,000 men and women with whom John and I served are engraved on a black granite wall near the Lincoln Memorial, just a few miles from where we are standing today. The heroes named on that wall include brave men and women from Washington, DC, as well. Since World War I, in fact, over 5,000 Americans from the District of Columbia have lost their lives in service to the United States. And, today, roughly 15,000 DC residents are on Active Duty or serving as reservists or members of the National Guard in the States. That is 15,000 Americans serving dutifully in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, or the Coast Guard.

Our Nation's Capital is home to more than just monuments and museums. It is home to Americans who work, who start businesses, and who contribute to America's economy. And just like all 50 States represented in this body, the District of Columbia is home to veterans and servicemembers who risk their lives for our country, even today. But, year after year, they come home to find that they are still denied the ability to have a real say in our Nation's future.

These heroes are among the nearly 700,000 Americans who call the District home and for generations have lived without voting representation in Congress. That is why I view Washington, DC's statehood not as a Republican or Democratic issue, not as a political issue but as an American issue--as an issue of basic fairness and equality.

Earlier this year, the senior Senator from Utah sought to overturn a law passed by the DC City Council, right here on the Senate floor. As U.S. Senators, neither of us should have such an opportunity to intervene in a local matter like that. But in the Senate, we have power over the budget of the District of Columbia--let me just point this out--a city that has a double A-plus credit rating--double A-plus. I am an old State treasurer. That is pretty darned good--better than most States, in fact, if you check.

We also have confirmation power in the Congress over the District's judges, an arrangement that needlessly led to extensive judicial vacancies and delayed justices for weeks, for months, and, in some cases, for years. That is wrong.

I reminded my colleagues that day that no one in this room was elected by the people of the District of Columbia. Nobody in this room was elected by the people of the District of Columbia, and no one here was able to stand up and represent their interests. This should be unacceptable in a 21st century democracy.

However, I believe that the tide is starting to turn. I believe we can finally make DC statehood a reality during this Congress, the 117th Congress.

We have a fearless champion in the House, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. With her leadership, along with that of the Speaker and Leader Steny Hoyer, the House passed their DC statehood bill last month for the second time--the second time ever.

We also have, for the first time, a President who formally supports ending this policy--this modern-day policy--of taxation without representation. And in the Senate, we have a record 45 cosponsors on our bill to make the District of Columbia a State, a number that represents Members from rural and urban areas alike. This number has grown steadily since my friend, our former colleague, Joe Lieberman--a fiercely independent Senator from Connecticut--led this charge in the Senate before passing the baton to me in 2013.

I know that some of our colleagues have said that DC statehood is unconstitutional. To be clear, the District of Columbia has taken the same steps for statehood that 37 other States have taken since 1791-- the same steps--a process clearly laid out in our Constitution. This case was made clearly in a letter to Congress just this week from nearly 40 leading constitutional scholars, who wrote that Congress is well within its rights to grant statehood.

On a different holiday later this summer, we will be celebrating July Fourth to remember those who fought for our independence, and I will remind my colleagues again that the Founding Fathers, the same men who wrote our Constitution, had a rallying cry during the Revolutionary War: There is no taxation without representation.

Yet that is exactly what is happening to the citizens in the District of Columbia today. The reality is that these citizens pay the most--get this, the citizens of the District of Columbia pay the most--in per capita Federal income taxes in the United States, more than any other State, but they have no say in how those dollars are spent, none.

This second-class status must come to an end, and we in Congress are the ones who can do something about it

Winston Churchill once said: You can always count on America to do the right thing in the end, after they have tried everything else.

It is never too late to do the right thing. The right thing to do now is to ensure that nearly 700,000 Americans living in the District of Columbia, serving in our military, voting, actually have a chance to vote on the representation in this body and in the House. The right thing to do is to end this policy of taxation without representation.

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