Norton Thanks New Hampshire Representative for Statehood Resolution
Norton Thanks New Hampshire Representative for Statehood Resolution
June 9, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today expressed her gratitude to New Hampshire State Representative Cindy Rosenwald for introducing a resolution this week expressing support for admitting the District of Columbia as the nation's fifty-first state. Norton, who in the early 1990s got almost two-thirds of a heavily Democratic House to support her statehood bill, said that the resolution, requested by D.C. Councilmember David Catania (At-Large), shows the important purpose of laying down a marker of determination to fight until statehood is achieved.
In her letter to Representative Rosenwald, Norton wrote, "Your resolution comes at a time when Republicans in the U.S. House have made inroads into the District's home-rule status by imposing pet projects on D.C. We particularly appreciate the section in your resolution that declares support for full democracy for the citizens of the District of Columbia. Your resolution reminds our residents and other Americans that only statehood can prevent the Congress from interfering with the District's local affairs, and only statehood can give D.C. residents the equal status they deserve."
Rosenwald's full resolution follows.
HR ## - AS INTRODUCED
2011 SESSION
HOUSE RESOLUTION
A RESOLUTION expressing support for admitting the District of Columbia as the fifty-first State of the United States of America.
SPONSORS: COMMITTEE:
ANALYSIS
This resolution expresses support for admitting the District of Columbia as the fifty-first State of the United States of America.
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Eleven
A RESOLUTION expressing support for admitting the District of Columbia as the fifty-first State of the United States of America.
Whereas, over 600,000 citizens of the District of Columbia pay taxes to the federal government but are denied voting representation in the Congress of the United States; and
Whereas, over 192,000 citizens of the District of Columbia have fought in our armed forces in service to our nation; and
Whereas, the Federal Government has seen fit to send its armed forces,
among them District of Columbia citizens, to fight on foreign soil in support
and defense of democratic ideals while denying the residents of our own national capital the right of legislative representation; and
Whereas, those efforts to spread liberty and democracy to the far corners of the globe are undermined and diminished by the denial of democratic rights to over 600,000 citizens of the United States of America; and
Whereas eight service members from the District of Columbia have lost their lives in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; and
Whereas, the United States is the only nation in the world with a representative, democratic constitution that denies voting representation in the national legislature to the citizens of the capital; and
Whereas, the District of Columbia is the only political and geographical entity within the United States whose citizens bear the full responsibilities of citizenship without sharing in the appropriate privileges of citizenship; and
Whereas, this body is a shining example of representational democracy; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives:
That the New Hampshire House of Representatives declares its support for admitting the District of Columbia as the fifty-first State of the United States of America; and
That the New Hampshire House of Representatives formally declares its support for full representative democracy for the citizens of the District of Columbia; and
That the house clerk transmit copies of this resolution to the President of the United States of America, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Mayor of the District of Columbia, and the Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, so that they may be apprised of the sentiments of the New Hampshire House of Representatives on this matter.