H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, would admit most of the District of Columbia as the 51st state, rename it “Washington, Douglass Commonwealth,” and give it full representation in Congress, with two U.S. senators and one U.S. representative. Under the bill, the area of Washington, D.C., surrounding the National Mall and including the White House and U.S. Capitol would remain a separate federal district with three electoral votes in accordance with the 23rd Amendment.
The House passed H.R. 51 on April 22, 2021 by a vote of 216 to 208 (Roll Call 132). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the push for D.C. statehood is merely a politically motivated effort to gain two Democratic Party senators and thus more easily advance a left-wing agenda. Moreover, granting statehood to the District of Columbia violates Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. H.R. 51 purports to circumvent this constitutional prohibition by reducing D.C. to basically the Capitol and surrounding governmental buildings.
