For the People Act of 2021 (H.R. 1; 117th Congress)/Division A/Title II/Subtitle C

by John Sarbanes

SEC. 2201. - FINDINGS RELATING TO DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA STATEHOOD.

Congress finds the following:

(1) The 705,000 District of Columbia residents deserve voting representation in Congress and local self-government, which only statehood can provide.

(2) The United States is the only democratic country that denies both voting representation in the national legislature and local self-government to the residents of its Nation’s capital.

(3) There are no constitutional, historical, fiscal, or economic reasons why the Americans who live in the District of Columbia should not be granted statehood.

(4) Since the founding of the United States, the residents of the District of Columbia have always carried all of the obligations of citizenship, including serving in all of the Nation’s wars and paying Federal taxes, but have been denied voting representation in Congress and freedom from congressional interference in purely local matters.

(5) The District of Columbia pays more Federal taxes per capita than any State and more Federal taxes than 22 States.

(6) The District of Columbia has a larger population than 2 States (Wyoming and Vermont), and 6 States have a population under one million.

(7) The District of Columbia has a larger budget than 12 States.

(8) The Constitution of the United States gives Congress the authority to admit new States (clause 1, section 3, article IV) and reduce the size of the seat of the Government of the United States (clause 17, section 8, article I). All 37 new States have been admitted by an Act of Congress, and Congress has previously reduced the size of the seat of the Government of the United States.

(9) On June 26, 2020, by a vote of 232–180, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which would have admitted the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth from the residential portions of the District of Columbia and reduced the size of the seat of the Government of the United States to the United States Capitol, the White House, the United States Supreme Court, the National Mall, and the principal Federal monuments and buildings.