SLS 21RS-3620 ORIGINAL
2021 Regular Session
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 209
BY SENATOR PETERSON
CONGRESS. Memorializes Congress to enact federal legislation granting statehood to the
people of Washington, D.C.
1 A RESOLUTION
2 To memorialize the Congress of the United States to enact federal legislation granting
3 statehood to the people of Washington, D.C.
4 WHEREAS, the people living on the land that would eventually be designated as the
5 District of Columbia were provided the right to vote for representation in Congress when the
6 United States Constitution was ratified in 1788; and
7 WHEREAS, the passage of the Organic Act of 1801 placed the District of Columbia
8 under the exclusive authority of the United States Congress and abolished residents' right to
9 vote for members of Congress and the President and Vice President of the United States; and
10 WHEREAS, residents of the District of Columbia were granted the right to vote for
11 the President and Vice President through passage of the Twenty–third Amendment to the
12 United States Constitution in 1961; and
13 WHEREAS, as of 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau data estimates that the District of
14 Columbia's population at approximately seven hundred twelve thousand residents is
15 comparable to the populations of Wyoming (five hundred eighty-two thousand), Vermont
16 (six hundred twenty-three thousand), Alaska (seven hundred thirty-one thousand), and North
17 Dakota (seven hundred sixty-five thousand); and
18 WHEREAS, residents of the District of Columbia share all the responsibilities of
Page 1 of 3 SR NO. 209
SLS 21RS-3620 ORIGINAL
1 United States citizenship, including paying more federal taxes than residents of twenty-two
2 states, service on federal juries, and defending the United States as members of the United
3 States armed forces in every war since the War of Independence, yet they are denied full
4 representation in Congress; and
5 WHEREAS, the residents of the District of Columbia themselves have endorsed
6 statehood for the District of Columbia and passed a districtwide referendum on November
7 8, 2016, which favored statehood by eighty-six percent; and
8 WHEREAS, no other democratic nation denies the right of self–government,
9 including participation in its national legislature, to the residents of its capital; and
10 WHEREAS, the residents of the District of Columbia lack full democracy, equality,
11 and citizenship enjoyed by the residents of the fifty states; and
12 WHEREAS, the United States Congress has repeatedly interfered with the District
13 of Columbia's limited self–government by enacting laws that affect the District of
14 Columbia's expenditure of its locally raised tax revenue, including barring the usage of
15 locally raised revenue, thus violating the fundamental principle that states and local
16 governments are best suited to enact legislation that represents the will of their citizens; and
17 WHEREAS, although the District of Columbia has passed consecutive balanced
18 budgets since FY 1997, it still faces the possibility of being shut down yearly because of
19 Congressional deliberations over the federal budget; and
20 WHEREAS, District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Delaware
21 U.S. Senator Tom Carper introduced in the 117th Congress H.R. 51 and S. 51, the
22 Washington, D.C. Admission Act, that provides that the State of Washington, D.C., would
23 have all the rights of citizenship as taxpaying American citizens, including two senators and
24 at least one house member; and
25 WHEREAS, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on the United
26 States Congress to address the District of Columbia's lack of political equality, and the
27 Organization of American States has declared the disenfranchisement of the District of
28 Columbia residents a violation of its charter agreement, to which the United States is a
29 signatory.
30 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
Page 2 of 3 SR NO. 209
SLS 21RS-3620 ORIGINAL
1 does hereby memorialize the Congress of the United States to admit Washington, D.C. into
2 the Union as a state of the United States of America and does hereby urge the members of
3 the United States Congress to enact federal legislation granting statehood to the people of
4 Washington, D.C.
5 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
6 secretary of the United States Senate and the clerk of the United States House of
7 Representatives and to each member of the Louisiana delegation to the United States
8 Congress.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by James Benton.
DIGEST
SR 209 Original 2021 Regular Session Peterson
Memorializes the Congress of the United States to enact federal legislation granting
statehood to the people of Washington, D.C.
Page 3 of 3