House passes bill to make D.C. the 51st state

WASHINGTON — The House passed legislation Thursday to make the District of Columbia a state, bolstering momentum for a once-elusive goal that has become a pivotal tenet of the Democratic Party’s voting rights platform.

Democrats approved Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton’s Washington, D.C. Admission Act 216208 in a party-line vote, describing it as a bid to restore equal citizenship to the residents of the nation’s capital and rectify a historic injustice.

The bill, symbolically titled HR 51, now heads to the Senate, where proponents hope to break new ground — including a first-ever hearing in that chamber.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer pledged Tuesday that “we will try to work a path to get (statehood) done,” and the White House asked Congress in a policy statement to pass the legislation as swiftly as possible.

The bill would shrink the federal district to a two-mile-square enclave including federal buildings such as the Capitol and the White House. The rest of the residential and commercial areas would become the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, to honor abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

But the political odds remain formidable, with the Senate filibuster requiring the support of 60 senators to advance legislation.

Republicans, who hold 50 seats, have branded the bill a Democratic power grab because it would create two Senate seats for the deep-blue city. Not even all Senate Democrats have backed the bill as the clock ticks toward the 2022 midterm election.

Still, the unprecedented support from Democrats nationwide, including in the White House, has energized supporters.

“We have a moment before us that has never existed for the statehood movement,” said Josh Burch, co-founder of Neighbors United for DC Statehood. “We can pat ourselves on the back and celebrate the House vote, and we should. But really that needs to be short-lived, because we have a lot of work to make this a reality in the next year and a half.”

The House passed the statehood bill for the first time last year, also without any Republican votes. Since then, sustained racial justice demonstrations and a broad Democratic focus on voting rights in the aftermath of the 2020 election have elevated the cause.

Norton said this year’s vote felt even more significant than last year’s.

“It’s now begun to excite the country,” she said.