The House approved a bill Friday to make the District of Columbia a state. Under the bill, most of present-day Washington, D.C., would take the name State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, in honor of Frederick Douglass.
Here is how the process works and what supporters and opponents say.
The Constitution gives Congress the authority to create new states, and the president must approve of legislation creating a new state or states. Congress can’t create new states out of land within other states without the consent of those states.
Congress has followed a variety of procedures for adding a new state, sometimes requiring the then-territories to draw up and submit a constitution before admission in the union. D.C. residents overwhelmingly supported a referendum in 2016 calling for statehood, and city leaders have drafted a possible state constitution.
When was the last time a state was added? Because adding a new state can change the balance of power in Washington, the debate on admitting new states has historically been one of the most fraught for Congress. In the 19th century, a Southern push to add states that allowed slavery was a primary tension that led to the Civil War.
The last time Congress admitted a state, with Hawaii in 1959, it did so only after adding Alaska earlier in the year. Democrats at the time had sought to add Alaska, hoping to add to their ranks in the Senate, while Republicans had favored adding Hawaii. Adding the two states together was an effort to maintain the balance of power. Today, Hawaii is represented by two Democrats in the Senate, and Alaska is represented by two Republicans.
Why do residents in D.C. and Democrats want to create a new state? Chief among the arguments is that residents deserve full voting representation in Congress. A non-voting House member, Eleanor Holmes Norton, now represents the District’s 700,000 residents in Congress, where she can introduce bills and serve on committees.
Because much of D.C.’s population is black and Latino, pro-statehood advocates see the issue as an important civil-rights measure. They also point out that the city has a larger population than two current states, Vermont and Wyoming.
D.C. residents also have chafed at the control the federal government exerts over the city’s affairs. While the city has a mayor and district council, Congress can still block measures supported by the local government. In recent years, Congress has prevented the district from spending money to provide abortions to low-income women and to regulate the sale of marijuana, among other efforts. The heavy presence of federal personnel on the city’s streets in recent weeks during protests against the killing of George Floyd also angered residents.
What do opponents say? Opponents say the effort would give the new state too much control over the federal government on matters such as security and services. They also point to the city’s small population and geographic size.
Many Republicans also highlight that granting D.C. statehood would also give an advantage to Democrats, who would be all but guaranteed two new safely Democratic Senate seats. Some Republicans have also attacked the District’s government as incompetent and unable to operate as a state.
Doesn’t the Constitution require a federal district? Yes, the Constitution requires a federal seat of government outside of any state, though it doesn’t provide for a minimum size. The statehood plan would retain a small federal district centered on the national Mall.
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The 51st State
The House is set to vote on statehood for the District of Columbia. The new state—with the proposed name of Douglass Commonwealth—would occupy the area of D.C. outside of a small federal enclave.
PROPOSED DOUGLASS COMMONWEALTH
Proposed federal
district boundary
PROPOSED DOUGLASS COMMONWEALTH
Proposed federal
district boundary
PROPOSED DOUGLASS COMMONWEALTH
Proposed federal
district boundary
Proposed Douglass Commonwealth
Proposed federal district
Source: D.C. Office of Planning
Brian McGill/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Are there any alternative ideas to give D.C. residents voting representation in Congress? Some have floated the idea of giving most of D.C. back to Maryland, likely creating a new congressional district in the state and giving residents of the city Senate representation from that state’s senators. That effort is opposed by both D.C. and Maryland leaders.
There is precedent for such a change, though: About one-third of the original, 100-square mile district was returned to Virginia in the 19th century in part because residents of the port town of Alexandria feared the slave trade would be outlawed in D.C.
An effort to grant the D.C.’s non-voting House member the ability to vote on the floor, in exchange for granting Utah an additional House seat, collapsed in 2010.
What about the 23rd Amendment? One victory in the push for voting representation for D.C. was passage of the 23rd Amendment in 1961 granting the district electoral college electors in presidential elections. The city’s residents now get three electoral college votes. If statehood were to become law, residents of the new state would have three electoral votes, but the new, smaller district—at this point essentially reduced to federal office facilities, monuments and museums—would retain its three electoral votes. To address that discrepancy, the bill calls for the expedited consideration of a resolution repealing the 23rd Amendment.
What happens next? For the rest of 2020, probably not much. Senate Republicans are opposed to the D.C. statehood effort, and the White House has said that President Trump would veto the measure.
Statehood activists are hopeful that they could achieve their goal if Democrats win the White House and Senate this year. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden supports granting statehood, and activists are pushing for the Senate to change its rules to bypass the 60-vote threshold necessary for most legislation.
Write to Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com
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