WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats controlling the House say they'll vote next week on a bill that would make the District of Columbia the country's 51st state.
It's an issue that they say has become far more important in the aftermath of protests for racial justice in both Washington D.C. and across the nation.
Next Friday’s vote, if successful, would pass a D.C. statehood bill for the first time in the House, but the legislation faces insurmountable opposition in the GOP-controlled Senate.
The White House's move to use federal forces to clear peaceful protesters so President Donald Trump could walk to a nearby church for a photo op two weeks ago prompted Democratic leaders to schedule the vote.
If the measure was signed into law, the state of “Washington, Douglass Commonwealth” would be admitted into the U.S. and the new state would elect two U.S. senators and one U.S. representative.
The state would consist of all D.C. territory except federal buildings and monuments, including the principal federal monuments, the White House, the Capitol Building, the U.S. Supreme Court Building, and the federal executive, legislative, and judicial office buildings located adjacent to the Mall and the Capitol Building.
