On the recordMay 25, 2021
I want to start by thanking the senior Senator from Delaware for his longtime persistence in making sure that this Congress ultimately does the right thing and makes the District of Columbia the 51st State. I want to thank Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton for representing the people of the District of Columbia so ably. She deserves a vote in the House of Representatives just like every other Member of the House of Representatives from the 50 States. The District of Columbia deserves two Senators right here in the U.S. Congress. I want to thank President Biden for saying that if this Senate will just get this bill to his desk, he will sign that piece of legislation and make sure that these people in the District of Columbia are represented as every other citizen in the 50 States is currently represented. All of us come to this floor and we hear our colleagues on both sides of the aisle talking about the importance of democracy overseas. We criticize China, rightly, when it begins to snuff out the right to vote in Hong Kong. We criticize the authoritarian rulers in Belarus when they clamp down on freedom. We look around the world, and we try our best to establish a standard for standing up for the principle of democracy. We are not always consistent. We are not always constant in that message, but we make an effort to do that. We need to look in the mirror and make that same effort right here at home.…
