All Quotes

Does Maryland have any jurisdiction over the District of Columbia today? It does not.

It does not. It says nothing. Those are the words. It says nothing about characteristics of the new states.

We now thank you, Madam Chair, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, our Congresswoman, and your Democratic colleagues and President Biden, for righting that wrong last week with the American Rescue Plan.

I urge all of you to do what over two centuries of lawmakers have failed to correct and grant full democracy to D.C. residents through statehood.

The people of Washington, DC, have voted to endorse statehood.

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

D.C. wants to continue to receive their special benefits for schools, for colleges, for roads, billions of dollars in Federal funds.

H.R. 51 will move us closer to our shared ideals for which District residents have fought and died.

D.C. wants to become a state so it can levy taxes on people who are working in D.C.

D.C. residents themselves overwhelmingly support statehood. In 2016, an astonishing 86 percent voted in favor of becoming a state.

D.C. residents deserve full voting representation in the Senate and House and complete control over local affairs.

Let me say at the outset that this hearing will refute each of the contentions just raised by the ranking member.

Both Republican and Democratic Justice Departments who have looked at the issue have said that a constitutional amendment is required for D.C. Statehood.

That is not a reason to disenfranchise over 700,000 people.

Congress cannot force retrocession on Maryland, so the idea is impractical.

Population size should not be a condition predicate to democracy.

The simple truth is that the right to democracy should not be contingent on party registration.

Why aren't you fighting for Puerto Rican admission? It's been in the Republican Party's national platform for several decades.