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2023 ASSEMBLY JOINT RESOLUTIO N 75
September 28, 2023 - Introduced by Representatives MOORE OMOKUNDE, C.
ANDERSON, J. ANDERSON, BALDEH, BARE, CLANCY, CONLEY, CONSIDINE, JOERS,
MADISON, MYERS, OHNSTAD, SHELTON, SUBECK and STUBBS, cosponsored by
Senators ROYS, CARPENTER, L. JOHNSON, LARSON, SPREITZER and TAYLOR.
Referred to Committee on Campaigns and Elections.
***AUTHORS SUBJECT TO CHANGE***
Relating to: urging members of the United States Congress to enact federal
legislation granting statehood to the people of Washington, D.C.
Whereas, the people living on the land that would eventually be designated as
the District of Columbia were provided the right to vote for representation in
Congress when the United States Constitution was ratified in 1788; and
Whereas, the passage of the Organic Act of 1801 placed the District of Columbia
under the exclusive authority of the United States Congress and abolished residents'
right to vote for members of Congress and the president and vice president of the
United States; and
Whereas, residents of the District of Columbia were granted the right to vote
for the president and vice president through passage of the T wenty-third
Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1961; and
Whereas, as of 2020, U.S. Census Bureau data estimates that the District of
Columbia's population of approximately 712,000 residents is comparable to the
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populations of Wyoming (582,000), Vermont (623,000), Alaska (731,000), and North
Dakota (765,000); and
Whereas, residents of the District of Columbia share all the responsibilities of
United States citizenship, including paying more federal taxes than residents of 22
states, service on federal juries, and defending the United States as members of the
United States armed forces in every war since the War for Independence, yet they
are denied full representation in Congress; and
Whereas, the residents of the District of Columbia themselves have endorsed
statehood for the District of Columbia and passed a District-wide referendum on
November 8, 2016, which favored statehood by 86 percent; and
Whereas, no other democratic nation denies the right of self-government,
including participation in its national legislature, to the residents of its capital; and
Whereas, the residents of the District of Columbia lack full democracy, equality,
and citizenship enjoyed by the residents of the 50 states; and
Whereas, the United States Congress repeatedly has interfered with the
District of Columbia's limited self-government by enacting laws that affect the
District of Columbia's expenditure of its locally raised tax revenue, including barring
the usage of locally raised revenue, thus violating the fundamental principle that
states and local governments are best suited to enact legislation that represents the
will of their citizens; and
Whereas, although the District of Columbia has passed consecutive balanced
budgets since the 1997 fiscal year, it still faces the possibility of being shut down
yearly because of congressional deliberations over the federal budget; and
Whereas, District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Delaware
U.S. Senator Tom Carper introduced in the 117th Congress H.R. 51 and S. 51, the
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Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which provides that the State of Washington, D.C.,
would have all the rights of citizenship as taxpaying American citizens, including
two senators and at least one House member; and
Whereas, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on the
United States Congress to address the District of Columbia's lack of political
equality, and the Organization of American States has declared the
disenfranchisement of District of Columbia residents a violation of its charter
agreement, to which the United States is a signatory; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the assembly, the senate concurring, That the members of the
United States Congress are urged to enact federal legislation granting statehood to
the people of Washington, D.C.; and, be it further
Resolved, That the State of Wisconsin supports admitting Washington, D.C.,
into the Union as a state of the United States of America.
(END)
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