The House of Representatives in the Congress from USA gave half a sanction to a draft of law that proposes to declare Washington, the national capital, as the condition number 51. Now the Senate is expected to approve the bill or not, but voices against it are accumulating.
More than 712,000 people live in the District of Columbia, a Democratic stronghold with a population greater than two states in the country and comparable to two others. Proponents of becoming a state say they seek to end a flagrant violation of civil rights in the United States, reports the agency The Intranews.
City residents fight and die in America’s wars and face a higher federal tax burden than people in all 50 states. But even though Washingtonians can vote in presidential elections, they are denied representation in Congress. Therefore, the project aspires to declare it as one more state of the country.
The House of Representatives voted along strict party lines, 216-208, with no Republican endorsing the initiative, emblematically titled “HR 51.” It was the second time the DC statehood bill was voted in Congress. The measure had obtained endorsement from the Lower House in 2020 but did not prosper in the Upper House.
“It is about democracy. It is about self-government. It’s about electoral rights, ”tweeted the Leader of the majority Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, after the vote in the House. Despite the hype, the proposal is highly unlikely to get the green light in the Senate, split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, and where the vice president democrat Kamala Harris is the tiebreaker vote.
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