Sheila Jackson Lee: “I want to give all acknowledgment to the outstanding gentlewoman, Eleanor Holmes Norton. President Washington said…”

“I want to give all acknowledgment to the outstanding gentlewoman, Eleanor Holmes Norton. President Washington said: ``The Constitution is the guide which I will never abandon.'' Nothing in the Constitution says that we cannot make the Washington State the Douglass Commonwealth. Frederick Douglass said there is no power without struggle. The sons and daughters of Washington, D.C., laid down their lives for this country in World Wars. They stand for this country in service to this government. Why are we denying them their rights? Alaska has 700,000-plus people. There is no population requirement. Make Washington, D.C., a State now. Mr. Speaker, as a senior member of the Committee on the Judiciary, as an original cosponsor of the legislation, I rise in strong and enthusiastic support of H.R. 51, the ``Washington, D.C. Admission Act,'' which declares the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, to be a State of the United States of America, and declares its admission into the Union on an equal footing with the other States in all respects whatsoever.…”