All Quotes

Those critiques simply don't hold water.

We have been very committed in our city to transparency in government and, in fact, have been very proud to advance some of the toughest transparency rules, ethics rules, data transparency rules anywhere in the Nation.

There is nothing in the Constitution that bars the Nation's capital from becoming a state.

Certainly, I can speak for the residents of Washington, DC. who have overwhelmingly endorsed statehood, and we are ready for statehood.

But this is unpopular with the citizens in both the District and Maryland.

Many opponents have argued that the District is not capable of governing itself in a fiscally responsible manner.

There should be no taxation without representation.

Statehood means the United States citizens of the District of Columbia will have the same rights and privileges enjoyed by the United States citizens of the 50 states.

Statehood is the only way to give our citizens locally elected representatives, to enact purely local laws that will not be subject to national debates over divisive social issues.

That is all we ask, that Congress give us what it has given the citizens of 37 other states--full citizenship, statehood.

The lack of statehood deprives us of more than just full representation in this Congress. It has practical and dire consequences.

To continue to deny statehood to 702,000 residents of Washington, DC, is a failure of the Members of this body to uphold their oath of office.

Denying statehood would be unfair no matter who was affected.

The fact is denying American citizens a vote in this body that taxes them goes against the very founding premise of this Nation.

In fact, we do a better job than most states. We have a budget of $15.5 billion, which we have balanced 24 times in the last 24 years.

What's more, we pay more Federal taxes per capita than any state, and we pay more Federal taxes total than 22 states.

But we're bigger by population than two states, bigger than all states but Oklahoma at the time they were admitted to the Union.

Over the years, there have been a lot of arguments against statehood. You're too small, they say.