DMO Resolution in Support of Statehood for Washington, District of Columbia
WHEREAS, the District of Columbia is the only political and geographic entity within the United States of America whose citizens bear the responsibilities of citizenship, including taxation and Selective Service registration, without sharing in the full rights and privileges of citizenship through voting representation in Congress.
WHEREAS, at more than 700,000 residents, the population of the District of Columbia is already larger than two states (Vermont and Wyoming) and comparable to that of several others including Alaska and Delaware.
WHEREAS, more than 11,000 D.C. residents currently serve in the United States armed forces, and since World War I more than 200,000 D.C. residents have served our nation in that way; and yet these citizens have no voting voice on the Congressional decisions regarding war and peace.
WHEREAS, the residents of D.C. pay more in federal income taxes than 22 states, but have no voting voice in Congressional deliberations on how their tax dollars are spent.
WHEREAS, the courts and the laws which govern local decisions affecting the residents of D.C. are controlled by Congress, but the citizens of D.C. have no voting voice in Congress.
WHEREAS, the unprecedented violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6 dramatized the dangers to the residents of D.C. from having no authority over its own National Guard units in preparing for and responding to extraordinary threats to public safety.
WHEREAS, Washington D.C. is a historically Black city, and if admitted as a state would be the only plurality Black state, raising the appearance that the unique resistance to D.C. statehood is related to our shameful national history of unequal treatment of Black and other Americans of color.
WHEREAS, the elected representatives of the people of Washington D.C. have repeatedly petitioned Congress for admission as the 51st state.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Democratic Municipal Officials supports addressing this injustice of “taxation without representation” for the citizens of Washington D.C. by admitting the District of Columbia as the 51st state of the United States of America.
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that members of Democratic Municipal Officials join in this support through personal advocacy and encouraging their local jurisdictions to adopt resolutions of support for D.C. statehood.