Elijah Cummings: “I want to thank you for giving your blood, your sweat, and your tears to all of us to make our lives better.”

That year, Bayou La Batre did elect its first Asian-American city council member.

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.

We are better than where we are. We are better than this.

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.