Democratic Senator Tom Carper leads the charge on a bill that would give Washington, D.C. statehood on Wednesday.
Carper said in a statement, “This isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue; it’s an American issue because the lack of fair representation for D.C. residents is clearly inconsistent with the values on which this country was founded.”
If passed, this would mean the District of Columbia would become the 51st state in the United States. This would create an additional two Senate seats and one congressional district.
D.C. Mayor, Muriel Bowser, called for a vote on the matter before the Capitol riot on January 6. The last time this type of legislation was proposed was in 2013.
She said, “Just like the millions of Americans who voted nationwide and the thousands who organized and voted in Georgia, we are ready to build a more perfect union — one in which all voices are heard, one in which we work together to uplift families in cities, and suburbs, and small towns, and one in which the 712,000 residents of Washington, D.C. have full access to our nation’s democracy.”
Inez F. Stepman wrote an article for The Federalist titled, “The Founders Didn’t Want DC To Be A State, And Neither Does This DC Resident” in 2017.
In a part of her article, she wrote the point as to why the Founding Fathers didn’t grant the Capital of the United States statehood.
“The Founders intended for the capital of the newly created United States to be a neutral ground for co-equal sovereign states to come together to transact the nation’s business. At the time, state governments were much more powerful than they are today, so a worry about placing the capital within a state was that the state might exercise unfair influence or pressure on the federal government. Today, with the expanded powers of the federal government vis-à-vis the states, the inappropriate influence has the potential to go both ways. Granting DC statehood would put the other 50 states (perhaps minus Virginia and Maryland) at a distinct disadvantage when looking to influence federal policy, grants, and regulation.”
https://thefederalist.com/2017/04/24/founders-didnt-want-dc-state-neither-dc-resident/