The House has passed a bill to make Washington D.C. the 51st state but President Trump and the Senate have opposed the legislative move.
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Earlier today, House Democrats have passed a bill to make Washington D.C. the 51st state after a vote of 232-182. The legislative move would provide one House member and two senators for residents after years of having no representatives in Congress despite paying for federal taxes. The bill was first introduced by D.C.’s longterm nonvoting House delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and it states the district would be renamed from Washington, District of Columbia to Washington, Douglass Commonwealth.
“As we approach July 4th, it is long past time to apply the nation’s oldest slogan, ‘no taxation without representation,’ and the principle of consent of the governed to District of Columbia residents, she states.
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The bill has been fiercely opposed by President Trump and the GOP and it will be likely they will vote out the bill to prevent D.C. from achieving statehood. Norton also argued that the District of Columbia has a population of 700,000 people and pays more federal taxes than 22 states.
Back in May, President Trump expressed that Washington D.C. will never become a state because there would be “more” Democratic senators and “five” congressmen.
“DC will never be a state. You mean District of Columbia, a state? Why? So we can have two more Democratic — Democrat senators and five more congressmen? No thank you. That’ll never happen.”
SOURCE: CNBC