For longtime District residents, conversations surrounding statehood can cause frustration and fatigue.
Since 1801, District residents, abiding by all obligations of American citizenship, have sought to be equal to all other citizens of the United States – a request that continues to be denied. According to summary statements shared by the D.C, Statehood website, the U.S. remains the only nation in the world with a representative, democratic constitution that denies voting representation in the national legislature to citizens of the capital.
But it goes further. All legislation, including the local budget for the District, must be approved by Congress. And so, like the ubiquitous “big brother,” Congress remains hellbent on interfering in the local affairs of the District.
The latest example of Congress sticking its nose in affairs that could be better handled by District leaders, and should be addressed by local leaders, is the DC CRIMES Act, which House lawmakers passed on May 15, by a vote of 225 to 181. The Act represents another example of members of Congress asserting congressional control over the District – this time by prohibiting the D.C. Council from pursuing soft-on-crime sentencing policies.
H.R. 7530, the D.C. Criminal Reform to Immediately Make Everyone Safer (DC CRIMES) Act, illustrates the latest instance of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability conducting constitutional responsibility to oversee the District. The chairman of the Committee, James Comer (R-Ky.) applauded the bipartisan passage of the bill which was sponsored by Committee member Rep. Byron Donalds, a Black Republican from Brooklyn, NY, who, since 2021, has represented Florida’s 19th District which includes much of Southwest Florida.
Pardon our ignorance but what qualifies Congressman Comer, a Republican born in Carthage, Tennessee, who represents 35 counties in Kentucky, from the Mississippi River to Central Kentucky, and Donalds, to speak to the needs of D.C.’s 712,000 residents?
After the House passed the DC CRIMES Act, D.C. Mayor Bowser said, “Congress should be hands off when it comes to local affairs,” while agreeing that some federal issues related to public safety merit their attention, like “getting judges appointed and ensuring that prosecution rates match those of other big cities – that’s where their focus should lie.”
D.C. residents have grown frustrated and angry over the recent crime wave that has involved young offenders. After hearing the complaints of their constituents, the D.C. Council and the mayor have worked through the process of shoring up legislation to reduce juvenile crime.
But Congress, clearly unimpressed with the abilities of the leaders that D.C. residents have elected, once more has exerted its own dominance.
The Republican-backed bill limits youth offender status to 18 and younger, instead of 24, directs the attorney general to create a website posting weekly statistics on juvenile crime, and prohibits the D.C. Council from making changes to existing criminal liability sentences.
Let’s cut to the chase: D.C. taxpayers pay more federal taxes than 12 states; has more residents than Vermont and Wyoming and is comparable in population with states that include Delaware and Alaska. The District has sent nearly 200,000 men and women to defend and fight for democracy abroad with 2,000 of those patriots never making it back home. Residents of the nation’s capital elect a delegate to the House of Representatives who can draft legislation (Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton) but cannot vote. Further, D.C. operates its own school system and manages its own SNAP and Medicaid programs.
And while D.C. has passed 24 consecutive balanced budgets and is fiscally independent, it is still subject to the congressional appropriations process and riders that allow any member of Congress to impose their will on District residents.
“Without statehood, the District has always had to adapt to restrictions imposed on it by the federal government, ranging from the prohibition on regulating the sale of recreational marijuana to the law restricting the height of buildings,” said Dr. Yesim Taylor, executive director, DC Policy Center, in a June 2021 interview with The Washington Post. “If the District had voting representation in Congress, lawmakers could lobby more effectively for federal grant funding available to all states.”
Statehood is the only remedy that provides full representation in Congress for the residents of Washington, D.C. So, what’s the real reason for their objections?
The District is no longer “Chocolate City” – the name it first gained in 1957 when the District became the first large city in the US with a majority-Black population. In fact, most of the people moving into D.C. since 2010 have been white.
And while District residents were encouraged after Congress passed the DC Home Rule Act of 1973, the federal government has continued to control local affairs in the District.
Maybe, Congress just doesn’t want to see another “blue state” enter the Union.