Statement from Jana Morgan, Director of the Declaration for American Democracy – a coalition of over 160 organizations from the labor, racial justice, faith, women’s rights, environmental, good government, and many other important communities – in response to the U.S. House of Representatives’ passage of H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which would support D.C. statehood:
“We applaud the House for recognizing that the District of Columbia’s over 700,000 residents deserve fair representation in Congress just like citizens in any of our 50 states. In order to uphold the foundation of this country – democracy – we must safeguard the right of all Americans to voice their opinions equally in our government, something D.C. sorely lacks today. This nation was founded on the idea that taxation without representation is undemocratic. It’s time to live up to that ideal.
We call on the Senate to support D.C. statehood and pass S. 631 to end this centuries-old injustice that has deprived the residents of D.C. of a vote in Congress for far too long.”
