LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION expressing support for admitting the District of
Columbia as the fifty-first state of the United States of America

WHEREAS, Over 600,000 citizens of the District of Columbia pay taxes to
the federal government but are denied voting representation in the
Congress of the United States; and
WHEREAS, Over 192,000 citizens of the District of Columbia have fought
in our armed forces in service to our nation; and
WHEREAS, Those efforts to spread liberty and democracy to the far
corners of the globe are undermined and diminished by the denial of
democratic rights to over 600,000 citizens of the United States of Amer-
ica; and
WHEREAS, To date, eight service members from the District of Columbia
have lost their lives in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; and
WHEREAS, The District of Columbia is the only governmental and
geographical entity within the United States whose citizens bear the
full responsibilities of citizenship without sharing in the appropriate
privileges of citizenship; and
WHEREAS, The United States is the only nation in the world with a
representative, democratic constitution that denies voting represen-
tation in the national legislature to the citizens of the capital; and
WHEREAS, Congress passed the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amend-
ment, which would have granted the city full representation in 1978, but
just 16 of the required 38 states ratified the proposal; it is imper-
ative that there be greater awareness of this serious issue; now, there-
fore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
express support for admitting the District of Columbia as the fifty-
first state of the United States of America.