Media Contact: Patrick Wright -- Patrick.Wright@mail.house.gov
Washington, D.C. — Congressman Donald M. Payne, Jr. voted for the Washington, D.C. Admission Act today. The bill (H.R. 51) would create a new state from the current District of Columbia named Washington, Douglass Commonwealth and a separate federal district that would contain the government buildings on or near the Capitol Mall and Capitol Building, such as the White House and Supreme Court.
“The residents of Washington, D.C. deserve full representation in the House of Representatives and the Senate,” said Congressman Donald M. Payne, Jr. “The country was founded on the belief that there would be no taxation without representation. But the 712,000 Americans who live in the District of Columbia have no true federal representation. They need an equal voice in Congress. I thank my colleague Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton for her tireless work to represent her constituents and get them the power they deserve.”
If passed in the Senate, the new state would become the nation’s 51st and the first one added since Hawaii in 1959. Currently, the United States is the only democratic country that denies national voting representation and full self-government to the residents of the capital. Residents in D.C. pay more in federal taxes than 22 states and more taxes per capita than the residents of any state.
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