House approves D.C. statehood

Leaders of the District of Columbia have pushed for representation in Congress for years, but Friday was the first time either chamber has approved it. The House vote fell mostly along party lines, with Democrats supporting the bill and Republicans opposing it.

How would statehood for the district work? The framers of the Constitution wanted to avoid giving any one state control of the seat of government. Today, the District of Columbia has 700,000 residents who pay federal taxes but have no representation in Congress. The bill would reduce the size of the nonvoting district to a small area around the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court, federal monuments, and the federal executive, legislative, and judicial office buildings adjacent to the National Mall and the Capitol. The rest of what is currently Washington, D.C., would become the 51st state.

The city’s population is majority Democrat, and Republicans called the move a power grab by the party to get more seats in the House and Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said he does not support the bill.

Dig deeper: Read Harvest Prude’s report about the statehood debate in The Stew.