The Biden administration declared their support for making Washington, D.C. a state, calling on Congress to pass legislation that would allow the nation’s capital to become the 51st.
“Establishing the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth as the 51st state will make our Union stronger and more just,” the administration said in a statement. “Washington, D.C. has a robust economy, a rich culture, and a diverse population of Americans from all walks of life who are entitled to full and equal participation in our democracy.”
The Biden administration specifically expressed its support for H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, saying that “for far too long, the more than 700,000 people of Washington, D.C. have been deprived of full representation in the U.S. Congress.”
“This taxation without representation and denial of self-governance is an affront to the democratic values on which our Nation was founded,” the Biden administration asserted. “H.R. 51rights this wrong by making Washington, D.C. a state and providing its residents with long overdue full representation in Congress, while maintaining a Federal District that will continue to serve as our Nation’s seat of government.”
H.R. 51 is scheduled to get a vote this week in the House of Representatives, but faces an uncertain future in the evenly divided Senate. Despite threats to eliminate the legislative filibuster from some Democratic lawmakers, the party has yet to gain enough support from within its own ranks to change the rule. Without such a change, making the nation’s capital a state would need the support of 10 Republican Senators.
But that support is unlikely to come, with some Republicans even arguing that such a move would be unconstitutional.
Sen. Tex Cruz is one of the Republicans making that argument, adding that the only reason Democrats want to admit the district as a state is the likelihood that it would add two safely Democratic Senators to the chamber.
“Am curious, would you still support if Virginia had to give Arlington back to DC? Without northern Virginia, Virginia would likely return to 2 GOP senators,” Cruz tweeted in response to former Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Kaine’s post in support of the idea.
Don’t miss the Dan Bongino Show
