Eleanor Holmes Norton: “I thank my good friend for yielding and for his support of H.R. 51. The rule before us is not ordinary. It is the…”

“I thank my good friend for yielding and for his support of H.R. 51. The rule before us is not ordinary. It is the prelude to history, and I use that word advisedly. Last Congress, the House passed the D.C. statehood bill, the first time either Chamber of Congress had passed the bill. This Congress with Democrats controlling the House, Senate, and White House, D.C. statehood is within reach for the first time in history. As a result of education from House proceedings like today's, 54 percent of the American people support D.C. statehood according to a wide-ranging poll that has just been released, and we predict that with increasing exposure, that percentage will continue to rise. For the 220 years since D.C. became our capital, District residents, who have had all of the obligations of citizenship, including paying full Federal taxes and serving in the Armed Forces, have been excluded from much of American democracy. The citizens who live in our Nation's Capital have never had voting representation on the floor of either Chamber of Congress, and Congress has always had the final say on their local affairs. This is uniquely un-American. It is undemocratic. For me, it is deeply personal. My own family has lived in D.C. since my great-grandfather Richard Holmes as a slave walked away from a plantation in Virginia and made his way to D.C. almost 200 years ago.…”