2023 -- H 5515
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LC000189
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S TATE OF RHODE IS LAND
IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2023
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H O U S E R E S O L U T I O N
SUPPORTING FEDERAL LEGISLATION GRANTING STATEHOOD TO THE PEO PLE OF
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Introduced By: Representatives Kislak, Potter, Ajello, Cortvriend, McGaw, Morales,
Boylan, Donovan, McEntee, and Stewart
Date Introduced: February 10, 2023
Referred To: House Judiciary
WHEREAS, The people living on the land that would eventually be designated as the 1
District of Columbia were provided the right to vote for representation in Congress when the 2
United States Constitution was ratified in 1788; and 3
WHEREAS, The passage of the Organic Act of 1801 placed the District of Columbia 4
under the exclusive authority of the United States Congress and abolished residents’ right to vote 5
for members of Congress and the President and Vice President of the United States; and 6
WHEREAS, Residents of the District of Columbia were granted the right to vote for the 7
President and Vice President through passage of the Twenty–Third Amendment to the United 8
States Constitution in 1961; and 9
WHEREAS, As of 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau data estimates that the District of 10
Columbia’s population at approximately 689,545 residents is comparable to the populations of 11
Wyoming (576,851), Vermont (643,077), Alaska (733,391), and North Dakota (779,094); and 12
WHEREAS, Residents of the District of Columbia share all the responsibilities of United 13
States citizenship, including paying more federal taxes than residents of 22 states, service on 14
federal juries, and defending the United States as members of the United States armed forces in 15
every war since the War for Independence, yet they are denied full representation in Congress; 16
and 17
WHEREAS, The residents of the District of Columbia themselves have endorsed 18
statehood for the District of Columbia and passed a District–wide referendum on November 8, 19
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2016, which favored statehood by 86 percent; and 1
WHEREAS, No other democratic nation denies the right of self–government, including 2
participation in its national legislature, to the residents of its capital; and 3
WHEREAS, The residents of the District of Columbia lack full democracy, equality, and 4
citizenship enjoyed by the residents of the 50 states; and 5
WHEREAS, The United States Congress has repeatedly interfered with the District of 6
Columbia’s limited self–government by enacting laws that affect the District of Columbia’s 7
expenditure of its locally raised tax revenue, including barring the usage of locally raised revenue, 8
thus violating the fundamental principle that states and local governments are best suited to enact 9
legislation that represents the will of their citizens; and 10
WHEREAS, Although the District of Columbia has passed consecutive balanced budgets 11
since FY 1997, it still faces the possibility of being shut down yearly because of Congressional 12
deliberations over the federal budget; and 13
WHEREAS, District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Delaware U.S. 14
Senator Tom Carper introduced in the 117th Congress H.R. 51 and S. 51, the Washington, D.C. 15
Admission Act, that provides that the State of Washington, D.C. would have all the rights of 16
citizenship as taxpaying American citizens, including two Senators and at least one House 17
member; and 18
WHEREAS, The United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on the United 19
States Congress to address the District of Columbia’s lack of political equality, and the 20
Organization of American States has declared the disenfranchisement of the District of Columbia 21
residents a violation of its charter agreement, to which the United States is a signatory; now, 22
therefore be it 23
RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island hereby 24
supports admitting Washington, D.C. into the Union as a State of the United States of America; 25
and be it further 26
RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to 27
transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the Majority Leader of the United States 28
Senate, the Minority Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House 29
of Representatives, the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, Senator 30
Jack Reed, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Representative David Cicilline, Representative Seth 31
Magaziner, and Noah Wills of the D.C. Statehood Compact. 32
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LC000189
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