Ben Cardin: “I first want to thank my colleague and friend Senator Carper for leading this effort with S. 51, the Washington, D.C.…”

“I first want to thank my colleague and friend Senator Carper for leading this effort with S. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act. It is long overdue that we acknowledge an injustice in our country and give the citizens of the District of Columbia their full representation rights by statehood. I have been working on this issue for a long time. When I was the speaker of the Maryland General Assembly almost 40 years ago, the Maryland General Assembly took action to give full representation to the people of the District in the Congress of the United States. That was 40 years ago, and we are still working on this issue. It is long overdue that we acknowledge a shortcoming in our own system for 700,000 residents of the District of Columbia. I had the honor of chairing the U.S. Helsinki Commission. It is the implementing arm for the Helsinki Final Act of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It has the membership of all of the countries of Europe and the former Soviet Union, Central Asia, Canada, and the United States. I mention that because in 1975, those countries entered into an agreement on basic, fundamental democratic principles, including the right to have representative government. That document also gives us the opportunity and obligation to question whether member states are in compliance with the Helsinki Final Act. Quite frankly, we have used that opportunity to raise issues in countries.…”