WASHINGTON — Supporters of the District of Columbia’s quest for statehood believe the time is right to bring this long-simmering and racially charged idea to fruition. But Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser’s clashes with Republicans at a House hearing Monday made clear that the issue is far from settled, even with Democrats controlling the presidency and Congress.
With a new statehood bill working its way through Congress, outnumbered Republicans are marshaling their defenses – complaining about a cynical Democratic power play, claiming statehood was never the intention of the country’s Founding Fathers, and insisting that Congress doesn’t even have the right to grant statehood to D.C.
Statehood would allow D.C. two senators and a fully voting member of the House. D.C. historically votes Democratic. Currently the District has one long-serving nonvoting delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who wrote the bill and says she has overwhelming support for it in the House.
“We dare to believe that D.C. statehood is on the horizon,” Norton said.
Bowser spent much of Monday’s four-hour hearing by the House oversight committee in a series of sometimes pointed exchanges with an array of Republican committee members.
