Senate Holds D.C. Statehood Hearing for Second Time Ever

For just the second time in the chamber’s history, the Senate is holding a hearing on legislation that would make D.C. the nation’s 51st state. The hearing comes as D.C. statehood has made tremendous gains, with the House passing legislation twice within the last year and the Biden administration fully backing the issue.

The Senate has not held a hearing on the issue in nearly seven years, and nowadays statehood legislation has more support among senators than ever before. The subject of the hearing—S.51 or the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, introduced by Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware—has the support of 46 senators.

Still, there are four members of the Democratic caucus who have not stated their support: Angus King of Maine, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Two of those senators—Manchin and Sinema—also do not seem to support abolishing the filibuster, a practice that allows the minority to thwart legislation, thus standing in the way of statehood legislation. The two made their opinions known in recent op-eds ahead of a big vote on voting rights legislation.

The senator really standing in the way of D.C. statehood is Manchin. Notably, Manchin tried to get provisions related to D.C. statehood—along with public financing of elections—removed as a condition of voting in favor of the For the People Act, according to Politico. And last month, Manchin told reporters in his home state that he does not support making D.C. the 51st state through legislation, preferring a constitutional amendment. “If Congress wants to make D.C. a state, it should propose a constitutional amendment. It should propose a constitutional amendment and let the people of America vote,” he said.

Read more: https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/520210/senate-holds-d-c-statehood-hearing-for-second-time-ever/