Norton Says 239 Years After the Nation’s Independence, D.C. Statehood is Overdue

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that as the nation on Saturday celebrates 239 years since declaring its independence from Great Britain because of taxation without representation, Congress must take the nation's founding slogan to heart and grant the District of Columbia statehood.

"The continuation of ‘taxation without representation' not only violates a main pillar of the revolution that sent our Founders to war," Norton said. "Allowing the residents of the nation's capital, which has more than 650,000 Americans citizens, to continue to live as second-class citizens betrays the spirit of July 4^th itself. On no U.S. holiday is our inequality more deeply felt or more at war with the nation's democratic values than on July 4^th. District residents not only pay taxes without voting rights, but pay more federal taxes per capita than the citizens of any state in the nation. July 4^th summons our moral outrage to continue our fight for full statehood for the District of Columbia. Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), ranking member of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the District, certainly gave the District of Columbia a July 4^th gift for which we are grateful, when, just before July 4^th, he introduced our D.C. Statehood bill in the Senate with a record number of original cosponsors, including the Senate's top Democratic leaders."

At the beginning of this Congress, Norton introduced her bill to make the District the 51st state with a record number of original cosponsors (93), and it currently has a record number of cosponsors (120). Last week, Senator Carper, ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced the companion to Norton's D.C. statehood bill with a record 17 original cosponsors, including the top four Senate Democratic leaders.