Wisconsin 2023-2024 Regular Session

Wisconsin Senate Bill SJR60 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

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1	1	LRB-1953/1
2	2	RAC:klm
3	3	2023 - 2024 LEGISLATURE
4	4	2023 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTIO N 60
5	5	August 9, 2023 - Introduced by Senators ROYS, CARPENTER, L. JOHNSON, LARSON,
6	6	SPREITZER and TAYLOR, cosponsored by Representatives MOORE OMOKUNDE, C.
7	7	ANDERSON, J. ANDERSON, BALDEH, BARE, CONLEY, CONSIDINE, JOERS, MADISON,
8	8	MYERS, OHNSTAD, SHELTON and SUBECK. Referred to Committee on Senate
9	9	Organization.
10	10	Relating to: urging members of the United States Congress to enact federal
11	11	legislation granting statehood to the people of Washington, D.C.
12	12	Whereas, the people living on the land that would eventually be designated as
13	13	the District of Columbia were provided the right to vote for representation in
14	14	Congress when the United States Constitution was ratified in 1788; and
15	15	Whereas, the passage of the Organic Act of 1801 placed the District of Columbia
16	16	under the exclusive authority of the United States Congress and abolished residents'
17	17	right to vote for members of Congress and the president and vice president of the
18	18	United States; and
19	19	Whereas, residents of the District of Columbia were granted the right to vote
20	20	for the president and vice president through passage of the T wenty-third
21	21	Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1961; and
22	22	Whereas, as of 2020, U.S. Census Bureau data estimates that the District of
23	23	Columbia's population of approximately 712,000 residents is comparable to the
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41	41	populations of Wyoming (582,000), Vermont (623,000), Alaska (731,000), and North
42	42	Dakota (765,000); and
43	43	Whereas, residents of the District of Columbia share all the responsibilities of
44	44	United States citizenship, including paying more federal taxes than residents of 22
45	45	states, service on federal juries, and defending the United States as members of the
46	46	United States armed forces in every war since the War for Independence, yet they
47	47	are denied full representation in Congress; and
48	48	Whereas, the residents of the District of Columbia themselves have endorsed
49	49	statehood for the District of Columbia and passed a District-wide referendum on
50	50	November 8, 2016, which favored statehood by 86 percent; and
51	51	Whereas, no other democratic nation denies the right of self-government,
52	52	including participation in its national legislature, to the residents of its capital; and
53	53	Whereas, the residents of the District of Columbia lack full democracy, equality,
54	54	and citizenship enjoyed by the residents of the 50 states; and
55	55	Whereas, the United States Congress repeatedly has interfered with the
56	56	District of Columbia's limited self-government by enacting laws that affect the
57	57	District of Columbia's expenditure of its locally raised tax revenue, including barring
58	58	the usage of locally raised revenue, thus violating the fundamental principle that
59	59	states and local governments are best suited to enact legislation that represents the
60	60	will of their citizens; and
61	61	Whereas, although the District of Columbia has passed consecutive balanced
62	62	budgets since the 1997 fiscal year, it still faces the possibility of being shut down
63	63	yearly because of congressional deliberations over the federal budget; and
64	64	Whereas, District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Delaware
65	65	U.S. Senator Tom Carper introduced in the 117th Congress H.R. 51 and S. 51, the
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94	94	Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which provides that the State of Washington, D.C.,
95	95	would have all the rights of citizenship as taxpaying American citizens, including
96	96	two senators and at least one House member; and
97	97	Whereas, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on the
98	98	United States Congress to address the District of Columbia's lack of political
99	99	equality, and the Organization of American States has declared the
100	100	disenfranchisement of District of Columbia residents a violation of its charter
101	101	agreement, to which the United States is a signatory; now, therefore, be it
102	102	Resolved by the senate, the assembly concurring, That the members of the
103	103	United States Congress are urged to enact federal legislation granting statehood to
104	104	the people of Washington, D.C.; and, be it further
105	105	Resolved, That the State of Wisconsin supports admitting Washington, D.C.,
106	106	into the Union as a state of the United States of America.
107	107	(END)
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