Elijah Cummings: “It is disheartening. It does not show that he has the proper sense of urgency on this problem.”

It is only recently in the last 50 years or so that many of these laws have changed.

I am extremely proud that our committee is holding the first hearing on D.C. Statehood in the House of Representatives in more than 25 years.

If we had a House and if we had a Senate that would pass legislation and we had a President that would sign it, this problem which is the subject of this hearing today could be fixed.

I really do think that we are in a moral situation. People are striving to live, trying to breathe the air of our country, trying to be better, trying to be healthy.