Washington, D.C. Admission Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 51 and D.C. statehood.

My mother and father met at D.C.'s Western High School in the 1940s before my father went off to West Point and Korea. I was raised in the Potomac Palisades of Washington and went to high school a few blocks from the Capitol. My grandchildren are fifth-generation Washingtonians.

Through the generations, we have been confounded and confused that the United States citizens who live in the District of Columbia have been denied self-rule.

The right to self-determination is the defining principle on which this Nation was founded. Yet, this very right is denied to those who reside in our Nation's Capital.

Taxation without representation sparked our own war of independence from Great Britain. Today, the same cry for democracy, impressed on every D.C. license plate, calls out for the peaceful passage of H.R. 51.

The American citizens of the District of Columbia overwhelmingly support statehood, passing a statehood referendum with 85 percent support in 2016.

My Republican statehood opponents argue that statehood should be denied D.C. because it is too small; because it is not rural enough; because it has insufficient logging, manufacturing, agriculture, and mining; because it is not well-rounded; and because its residents are not real Americans. D.C. does, by the way, have a Tesla car dealership.

The real reason my Republican friends oppose statehood is that they disagree with the political views of today's Washingtonians. This is terrible short-term thinking. Texas voted Democratic for generations, while California and New York have elected many Republican Governors and Senators. Political pendulums swing both ways.

This view betrays our democratic principles upon which our Nation was founded.

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