Table of Contents 1. What YOU Can do to help 2. Quick History 3. What the Constitution Says 4. The Tennessee Plan 5. Timeline of Current Statehood Movement 6. Lawmaking 7. Taxation Without Representation 8. Criminal Justice 9. Military 10. “If You Want Representation, You Should Just Move” 11. DC Statehood Would Not Give Residents Unequal Influence Over Politics 12. DC Statehood is a Racial Equity and Partisanship Issue 13. More Information 1. What YOU Can Do to Help Contact your legislators – if they already support, thank them! If not, tell them why you care about and support this issue and they should, too. Ideally, we would like to get ALL Democrats to sign on as cosponsors before the vote. Let your representatives know you support DC statehood. Write an op-ed for your local paper: view op-ed template. Talk to your friends and family. Call Senators who have yet to co-sponsor S.631 and ask them to correct their mistake. Use your social media platform (and amplify statehood accounts). In addition to Persist DC, here are some trusted statehood-focused social media accounts to follow/amplify: Neighbors United for DC Statehood o Twitter and Instagram – @51stDC Students for DC Statehood o Twitter - @StudentsforDC o Instagram - @students_for_dc Washington DC Statehood Office o Twitter and Instagram - @DCstatehood51 DC Vote o Twitter - @DC_Vote o Instagram - @dcvote 51 for 51 o Twitter - @51for51 Iowans for DC Statehood o Twitter – @Iowans4DCState 2. Quick History Regardless of where a person falls on the political spectrum it is unlikely that they know much about DC statehood. It is a good idea to begin with a quick rundown of the background when introducing the issue to someone newly interested. The Constitution, until amended or until DC becomes a state or part of a state, gives Congress exclusive legislative authority over DC in Article I, Section 8, Clause 17. When the Constitution was written, DC had fewer than 8,000 residents and it would stay mostly rural for decades. The Civil War was the catalyst that turned DC from the sleepy seat of government into a real city. DC abolished slavery months before the Emancipation Proclamation, making it a popular destination for formerly enslaved people. Thousands more flocked to DC to work for the war effort. Another population boom came in the 1930s, when the New Deal dramatically increased the number of people working for the Federal Government. By 1957, DC was a majority-Black city. While the Federal governing of DC has changed over the years, it has consistently silenced the wants and needs of the residents of the District. For example, DC’s subway system was not built until the mid-1970s because Members of Congress - who tended to live in the suburbs - prioritized building a highway system. In 1973, Congress granted DC limited Home Rule authority. Under Home Rule Congress oversees DC through four Congressional committees, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the President. Congress not only reviews and can modify DC's local budget, but it can also annul any law it does not agree with. Therefore, DC does not have true local self- government. Additionally, DC has faced serious restrictions on its ability to participate in national politics. It was only in 1961, with the passage of the Twenty-Third Amendment to the Constitution, that DC citizens were allowed to vote in Presidential elections. DC has still never been granted full voting rights in Congress. Learn more. 3. What The Constitution Says This section outlines the (rather few) limitations the Constitution places on altering the status of DC. The Constitution only sets a maximum size for DC: “ten miles square,” for the federal district that is the “Seat of the Government of the United States.” Congress has the authority to redefine the borders of the federal district and shrink its size, as it did in 1846, when the portion west of the Potomac was returned to Virginia (now Arlington and Alexandria Counties). Creating the new state does not require changing the Constitution. It will require a simple reduction in the size of the federal district to an unpopulated area which includes the US Capitol, the National Mall, museums, some federal office buildings, the White House, the Supreme Court, and major national monuments. Learn more here, here and here. 4. The Tennessee Plan This section outlines the steps DC has taken in accordance with The Tennessee plan. A template that has been used to admit several territories as states since 1796. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the New Columbia Statehood Commission decided to pursue statehood through what is known as the “Tennessee Plan.” Under the Tennessee Plan, the prospective state’s electorate votes on statehood and ratifies a constitution, without an enabling act, and then uses this as a basis to petition Congress for admission. This approach was pioneered by Tennessee in 1796 and used by Michigan, Iowa, California, Oregon, Kansas, and Alaska to gain admission to the Union. DC voters opted to satisfy the following four conditions for Statehood prior to filing an enabling act with Congress: Residents affirmed the desire to become a state, and 86% of voters supported the Washington, D.C. Admission Act. Ratified a State Constitution. Established new state boundaries, which would preserve a smaller federal district required by the Constitution. Committed to a republican form of government that is representative, with elected officials including the election of United States Senators and Representatives on equal footing with the other states in the Union. Under the Tennessee Plan a bill must pass the US House of Representatives and US Senate and then must be signed by the President of the United States. We’re working on the first part of that now. 5. Timeline of Current Statehood Movement This provides a more in depth rundown of the recent moves that have been made towards statehood. On January 3, 2019, DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton introduces H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, with 155 cosponsors, the most initial cosponsors ever on a DC statehood bill. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, commits to holding a hearing on and a markup of the bill in 2019. This would be the first hearing and markup of a DC statehood bill in 26 years. On January 3, 2019, the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives includes findings in § 2201 of H.R. 1, the For the People Act of 2019, on why the residents of the District of Columbia "deserve full congressional voting rights and self-government, which only statehood can provide." On February 28, 2019, Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE) introduces S. 631, a companion Senate statehood bill with 29 original cosponsors. On March 8, 2019, the House of Representatives approves H.R. 1, including § 2201’s findings relating to DC statehood. This is the first time either house of Congress has approved legislation relating to DC statehood. As of March 11, H.R. 51, the House statehood bill, has 201 cosponsors and S. 631, the Senate statehood bill, has 32 cosponsors, the most ever for both houses. On April 15, 2019, on the eve of DC’s celebration of Emancipation Day, 20 state Attorneys General (CA, CN, DE, HI, IL, IA, KY, MD, MA, MI, MN, NV, NM, NY, NC, OR, PA, VT, VA, WA) join DC Attorney General Karl Racine in supporting DC statehood and issue a statement urging Congress to approve DC statehood. On July 2, 2019, DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton announces that over 100 national and local organizations support DC statehood, including the ACLU, AFGE, NTEU, Common Cause, Democracy for America, Friends of the Earth, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, March for Our Lives, NAACP, the National Council of Jewish Women, Progressive Democrats of America and NARFE. On September 19, 2019, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform holds a hearing on H.R. 51, the first House hearing since 1993. Over a thousand DC residents attend the hearing, many in overflow rooms or before an outdoor jumbotron. The District government celebrates with 51 star U.S. flags lining both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue NW from Freedom Plaza to the Capitol. On February 11, 2020, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, by a 21 to 16 vote, reports a DC statehood bill to the full House of Representatives for the first time since 1993. On June 26, 2020, H.R. 51. Passes the full House of Representatives with 232 Yeas to 178 Nays and heads to the Senate where it is unlikely Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will allow a vote this term. As of TODAY (7/8/2020), H.R. 51 has 224 cosponsors and S. 631 has 42 cosponsors. 6. Lawmaking This section is most likely going to appeal to left leaning folks since DC leans to the left. To conservatives DC laws are abominable and the end of preventing them justifies any means used to do so. While DC has Home Rule, which includes the DC Council and a Mayor who write and pass legislation, there is no guarantee that our local elected officials’ work will actually become law. Unique to the District of Columbia, an approved Act of the Council must be sent to the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate for a period of thirty days before becoming effective as law (or 60 days for certain criminal legislation). During this period of congressional review, the Congress may enact into law a joint resolution disapproving the Council’s Act. If, during the review period, the President of the United States approves the joint resolution, the Council’s Act is prevented from becoming law.