DC Statehood Endorsed For First Time By Washington Area Leaders

WASHINGTON, DC — A group of the Washington, D.C., region's top leaders formally endorsed D.C. statehood for the first time.

The board of directors of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments unanimously approved a resolution this week urging Congress to “establish the state of Washington, D.C. without delay.”

The COG board is composed of elected officials from 24 area governments representing the District of Columbia, suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia.

The resolution was approved at a virtual meeting Wednesday, on the same day that the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform approved legislation, the District of Columbia Statehood Bill (H.R. 51), introduced by U.S. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.

The full House of Representatives could vote on the bill as early as next week.

“Residents of the District of Columbia have fought in our nation’s wars like full citizens, have paid taxes like full citizens, have acted like full citizens in every respect, but we are not treated as full citizens,” COG Board Chair and D.C. Councilmember Robert C. White Jr. said in a statement.

The resolution notes that the District of Columbia lacks full representation in Congress even though the District exceeds the population of two states, anchors a metropolitan statistical area that is the sixth largest in the nation, and its residents pay annual federal taxes of more than $27.5 billion, more per capita than any state.

The resolution also calls out denying full voting rights to the District’s population of 712,000 residents, a majority of which are Black and other people of color.

“Statehood benefits our neighbors in Washington D.C., but it also benefits all of us in the entire National Capital Region,” said Arlington County Board member Christian Dorsey, who served as co-chair of the COG task force that studied the statehood issue and crafted the COG resolution. “Statehood means better representation for all of our shared priorities in Congress, a greater ability to ensure the safety of our public, and a more equitable share of federal funding to combat crises like COVID-19.”

The COG Board wrote to Congress last April calling for additional funding for the District of Columbia since the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act allocation of $500 million to the District was less than half of the minimum $1.25 billion guaranteed to each state, shortchanging the nation’s capital, according to the group.

The COG D.C. Statehood Task Force also included Phyllis J. Randall, Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair; Kate Stewart, City of Takoma Park Mayor; Denise Mitchell, City of College Park Councilmember; Reuben B. Collins, II, Board of Charles County Commissioners President; Rodney Lusk, Fairfax County Supervisor; Justin Wilson, City of Alexandria Mayor; and Phil Mendelson, District of Columbia Council Chair.

When Washington, D.C. becomes the 51st state, it will make the entire D.C. region stronger, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a statement.

"We are grateful to have the support of the Council of Governments, and especially our neighbors in Maryland and Virginia," the mayor said.