Committee Democrats Demand Statehood for D.C., Defend District’s Right to Home Rule

May 17, 2023
Press Release
Committee Republicans Ignore Barriers to Addressing Crime and Overrule Local Laws Made by D.C.’s Democratically-Elected Officials

Washington, D.C. (May 17, 2023)—Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, led Democrats in defending D.C.’s right to self- governance and criticized Republicans for hindering the District’s efforts to address crime.  

 

“If our colleagues choose to ignore the statehood petition of nearly 700,000 Americans right in front of their nose, there is not much we can do about that kind of moral indifference and smug contempt for other Americans’ rights.  But at least spare everyone the Trumpian spectacle of your blaming the victims for their disenfranchisement and lack of fully effective government.  It is an insult to Washington, an embarrassment to Congress, and a shocking waste of time,” said Ranking Member Raskin in his opening statement

 

The hearing included testimony from Ms. Muriel Bowser, Mayor of the District of Columbia, and Mr. Matthew Graves, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. 

 

Committee Democrats defended D.C.’s right to political self-determination, renewed calls for statehood, and pushed back against Republicans’ specious anti-statehood arguments. 

 

  • D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton detailed how:  “The Constitution’s Admissions Clause commits to Congress the power to admit new states.  The Constitution’s District Clause gives Congress plenary authority over the federal district . . . The text of the Constitution is clear that Congress has the authority to admit the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth.”

 

  • Rep. Kweisi Mfume pointed out that 86% of DC residents voted for statehood in a 2016 referendum.  He criticized Republicans interference in D.C.’s local affairs, saying:  “The undemocratic meddling by some members of this committee on D.C. matters and their particular interests—to try to find a twist, or newsworthy item, or soundbite—does not advance the representation of the people here, who live here, who love the District of Columbia and who work day in and day out to make it better, because it is, in fact, the capital of the United States.”

 

  • Rep. Shontel Brown noted:  “The United States is the only democracy, as stated by Mayor Bowser, that denies the residents of its capital voting representation in the national legislature.  We in Congress have the obligation to finally extend statehood to the residents of D.C., not the obligation to question every decision of the local D.C. government.”

 

  • Rep. Summer Lee highlighted the outrageous indignity of D.C. residents paying federal taxes, but being denied voting representation in Congress.  She observed that, “Taxation without representation is as wrong today as it was in 1776 yet this shameful practice is alive and well in our Nation's capital.”

 

  • Mayor Bowser countered Republicans’ claim that Congressional oversight was necessary for the people of D.C. to hear from their mayor, stating, “I don't have to come here, to talk to you, to talk to the residents of D.C.  I talk to them daily.”

 

Committee Democrats criticized Republicans for acting as a super legislature for D.C. and overruling duly-enacted laws made by D.C.’s democratically-elected officials.

 

  • Mayor Bowser undermined Republican’s attempts to minimize the importance of statehood for D.C. residents.  When Rep. Clay Higgins asked, “Is there any other municipality in these United States that has access to [the U.S.] seat of government as the citizens of Washington, D.C.?”  Mayor Bowser responded, “Actually they all have more access [than D.C.], because they have voting Members of Congress and two Senators.”

 

  • Rep. Maxwell Frost criticized Republicans for intervening in local D.C. government matters only when it is politically convenient:  “I know all about Republican lawmakers that have this same agendausing fear, intimidation, and ultimately trying to use their action to stifle local government and to stifle democracy . . . Republican lawmakers want to talk about public safety with a straight face while refusing to do anything about gun violence in this country.  Republicans want to talk with a straight face about protecting students in schools without doing anything to change the fact that the leading cause of death in this country for a kid is to be shot.”

 

  • Rep. Greg Casar underscored the grave injustice of denying voting representation in Congress to the approximately 30,000 veterans who live in the District:  “So many of our veterans and active servicemembers are great participants in our democracy and help us make this system work better.  And I believe that with D.C. statehood, those active military members and veterans would be best served” by having a voting Representative in D.C.

 

Unlike states, D.C. lacks control over its criminal justice system, and Committee Democrats underscored the challenges this presents in addressing crime.  

 

  • Rep. Jasmine Crockett emphasized that D.C. lacks "control over much of its own post-arrest criminal justice system.  Instead, the federal government administers most of it."  In an exchange with Mayor Bowser, Rep. Jasmine Crockett illustrated the degree of federal government control.  She noted that the federal government has the authority to prosecute nearly all crimes committed by adults under D.C. law; oversees community supervision of adults convicted of crimes under D.C. law; and has jurisdiction over the incarceration of adults convicted of felonies under D.C. law.

 

  • U.S. Attorney Graves thanked Democrats for providing a funding increase for his office in the Fiscal Year 2023 budget, saying it would, “provide additional resources for prosecutors.”

 

  • Rep. Robert Garcia pointed out that gun-related violence has dropped in D.C. over the last decade, unlike in many red states, “It’s clear that my Republican colleagues really don’t care about the violence facing our American communities.  They want to make political points.”

 

  • Rep. Daniel Goldman emphasized that many of the guns used in violent crimes in D.C. are trafficked from states with lax gun laws, “Whatever the gun laws are [in those states], those firearms show up in Washington, D.C.,” which D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee confirmed.

 

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Issues: 
118th Congress