D.C. officials 'determined to become the 51st state'; statehood hearing planned for July
WASHINGTON (ABC7) — D.C. officials met on Thursday morning to announce the first hearing on D.C. statehood in over 25 years will take place on July 24.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) met at the D.C. War Memorial to speak to the public about the issue they believe is long overdue.
"We are alerting the country that DC veterans deserve equal representation and self-government in the nation they fought to defend," Del. Norton wrote on Twitter.
The last time a statehood hearing was held, the House rejected it 277 to 153. That was in 1993.
Those in attendance included many D.C. statehood activists as well as Sen. Paul Strauss (D) and Rep. Franklin Garcia (D).
The officials met at the D.C. War Memorial, which is dedicated to the 499 Washingtonians who died in service during WWI.
"Our continued lack of voting representation in Congress is a disgrace to the nearly 30,000 veterans who call our city home, and it is a stain on our nation's democracy," Mayor Bowser said Thursday morning.
But we know this injustice is neither inevitable not intractable. We can fix it by making Washington D.C. the 51st state.
D.C statehood has received support from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Rep. Cummings (D-MD) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA).
Mayor Bowser said, "every single Democrat running for president endorses D.C. statehood."
The Mayor also shared some of D.C.'s accomplishments in comparison to other states.
We have more residents than at least two other states, and we're growing and they're not. And more federal taxes paid than 22 states; more per capita than any state.
View the whole announcement here.
