The people of Washington, D.C. voted on statehood. They didn`t vote to secede from the Union. They didn`t vote to shirk their taxes. They just voted to say that we need equal representation and full autonomy. We need two senators.

Well, Joy, you hit the nail right on the head. Their arguments are, they are stupid, and they show that they have run out of and we have debunked all of the arguments they used to use against that. It`s not constitutional.

I support how Senator Schumer is going to get this bill through. We make the argument, Joy, that this is as much a voting rights issue as all the voter suppression that we see around the country.

The people of Washington, D.C. saw what can happen when we have nobody arguing for us in the Senate in the CARES package. We were shorted $750 million, three quarters of a billion dollars, to respond to a global pandemic. That is what it…

We can support ourselves.

We believe that our diversity makes us stronger.

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

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

That is exactly how we would like to enter, Congresswoman.

The District is proud to pay its fair share of taxes, Congressman. What we are here to ask you to correct is to make sure that we have representation for those taxes.

Today, I come to urge this committee and this Congress to move beyond the tired, nonfactual, and, frankly, anti-democratic rhetoric and extend full democracy to the residents of the District of Columbia.

The Constitution does not set out types of industry that have to be in a state in order to be admitted to the state.

Eighty-six percent of our electorate says they want to be full Americans.

It's absurd, but we've heard a lot of absurd things from him.

I want to especially thank our Congresswoman, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has championed equality for Washington, DC, throughout her tenure.

Every American, Congressman, who pays taxes deserves representation. Our Congresswoman should have a vote and we should have two Senators.

To be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other Federal law enforcement personnel and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to and consultation with MPD if such plans are underway.

This weekend, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called on the Trump administration to early-up the federal security preparations for the inauguration.

The situation is urgent. And every member of my Administration is focused on how to blunt this gun violence and the fatalities that have resulted from it.

I think I've been shocked all week about how the Federal government behaved against the American citizens who were peacefully protesting.

I was shocked to see unnamed and unidentified Federal police in the Nation's Capital, all the while we're talking about police and community trust.

Black Lives Matter, that Black humanity matters, and we as a city raise that up as part of our values.

We know what’s going on in our country.

It is a great indignity when great questions affecting this country we have nobody to call in the Senate to speak for us.

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