WHEREAS: the people of the District of Columbia are the only Americans who still bear all of the responsibilities of citizenship, including serving in all of the Nation’s wars and paying all Federal taxes, but who do not enjoy all of the rights aof citizenship, including authority over state and local matters and representation in both houses of Congress, making the District, in effect, a colony under Congressional jurisdiction; and
WHEREAS: the citizens of the District of Columbia will retain ALL of the established programs treand benefits currently enjoyed by the residents such as the Emergency Rent Assistance Program which assist residents that have fallen behind on their rent or mortgage payments. The Single Family Residential Rehabilitation Program, which provides grants of up to $50,000.00, for individual homeowners Rent Control, Tenant First Right of Purchase Program, senior and disabled protections, programs and many, many more free benefits and
WHEREAS: the rights of the residents of the District of Columbia are abridged when the U.S. Congress imposes its political will on local matters and is denied voting representation on federal issues in both houses of the U.S. Congress, affecting not only Washington D.C. residents, but the entire region; and
WHEREAS: The insurrection on the U. S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 showed the nation that the Mayor of the District of Columbia, unlike the governors of the 50 states, is unable to call on the District’s National Guard to protect its residents without approval of the President of the United States; and
WHEREAS: The 710,000 residents of the District of Columbia, including more than 50,000 members of labor unions, pay more federal taxes per capita than residents of any State in the country, yet do not have full and equal representation in Congress and self-government; and
WHEREAS: The District of Columbia has a larger population than the states of Wyoming and Vermont, and is close to the population of the seven States that have a population of under one million fully represented residents; and
WHEREAS: The District of Columbia’s total personal income is higher than that of seven States, its per capita personal consumption expenditures are higher than those of any State, and its total personal consumption expenditures are greater than those of seven States; and
WHEREAS: There are no constitutional, historical, financial, or economic reasons why the 710,000 Americans who live in the District of Columbia should not be granted statehood; and
WHEREAS: A majority of the residents of the District of Columbia being people of color, the continued denial of our full representation in Congress is part of continued structural racism institutionalized in the United States; and
WHEREAS: The non-voting Representative of the District of Columbia, with more than 200 Congressional cosponsors, has introduced House Resolution 51, to provide for the Admission of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth into the United States as the 51st State; and
WHEREAS: Delaware Senator Tom Carper has crossfiled S 51; and
WHEREAS: statehood will ensure that residents of the District of Columbia enjoy full rights in state and local matters and voting representation in both houses of the U.S. Congress just like every other citizen of the United States of America, and is a matter of simple justice; and
WHEREAS: Congress has authority under Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1, which gives Congress power to admit new states to the Union, and Article I, Section 8, Clause 17, which grants Congress power over the seat of the Federal Government, to admit the new State carved out of the residential areas of the Federal seat of Government, while maintaining as the Federal seat of Government the United States Capitol Complex, the principal Federal monuments, Federal buildings and grounds, the National Mall, the White House and other Federal property.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED: That the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO, representing more than 140,000 union members throughout the region, wholeheartedly endorses the full rights of American citizenship by making the residential and commercial areas of the District of Columbia the 51st State as provided in HR 51; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO seek endorsement of other central labor councils and state federations to endorse HR 51; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the Delegates to the Metropolitan Washington Council call on their respective national unions to endorse and support HR 51 and S 51.
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