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The views expressed by me on this blog are mine alone at the time of posting and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization with which I am associated.

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

DC Statehood

Last week, the House passed a bill to allow for statehood for Washington, DC. I am in favor of representation in national legislature for the residents of the District, but I am not in favor of statehood. The Founders intended for the District to not be a part of any state. Here is a proposal formed from ideas I've picked up over the years from various sources, so I don't claim originality here.

We could think of the District as part of Maryland, which gave the land for it. Allow the District to be its own Congressional district. This is only fair, as the House allocates representation based on population. The District gets a minimum of 1 Representative (and is protected from gerrymandering that might occur if it were formally part of Maryland). For the Senate, allow residents of the District to vote for the Senators that represent Maryland. Then its residents have two Senators to represent them. 

This solves the problem that there are no voting members of the national legislature who are responsive to the residents of the District. It does so with minimal disruption. I acknowledge that Maryland has to take one for the team and needs to consent. But this is where I would start the conversation.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Curious on your thoughts on Puerto Rico now that they have voted for statehood and would be the 31st largest state in the country, just ahead of Iowa with 3.19M people.