Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

SECOND REGULAR SESSION
                     HOUSE CONCURRENT
                      RESOLUTION NO. 43
                            102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY
                       INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE BLAND MANLOVE.
    5215H.01I                                                      DANA RADEMAN MILLER, Chief Clerk



           WHEREAS, the people living on the land that would eventually be designated as the
 2 District of Columbia were provided the right to vote for representation in Congress when the
 3 United States Constitution was ratified in 1788; and
 4
 5         WHEREAS, the passage of the Organic Act of 1801 placed the District of Columbia
 6 under the exclusive authority of the United States Congress and abolished residents’ right to
 7 vote for members of Congress and the president and vice president of the United States; and
 8
 9         WHEREAS, residents of the District of Columbia were granted the right to vote for
10 the President and Vice President through passage of the Twenty–Third Amendment to the
11 United States Constitution in 1961; and
12
13         WHEREAS, as of 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau data estimates that the District of
14 Columbia’s population at approximately 689,545 residents is comparable to the populations
15 of Wyoming (576,851), Vermont (643,077), Alaska (733,391), and North Dakota (779,094);
16 and
17
18         WHEREAS, residents of the District of Columbia share all the responsibilities of
19 United States citizenship, including paying more federal taxes than residents of 22 states,
20 serving on federal juries, and defending the United States as members of the United States
21 Armed Forces in every war since the War for Independence, yet they are denied full
22 representation in Congress; and
23
24         WHEREAS, the residents of the District of Columbia themselves have endorsed
25 statehood for the District of Columbia and passed a District–wide referendum on November
26 8, 2016, which favored statehood by 86%; and
27
HCR 43                                             2

28          WHEREAS, no other democratic nation denies the right of self–government,
29   including participation in its national legislature, to the residents of its capital; and
30
31           WHEREAS, the residents of the District of Columbia lack full democracy, equality,
32   and citizenship enjoyed by the residents of the 50 states; and
33
34           WHEREAS, the United States Congress repeatedly has interfered with the District of
35   Columbia’s limited self–government by enacting laws that affect the District of Columbia’s
36   expenditure of its locally raised tax revenue, including barring the usage of locally raised
37   revenue, thus violating the fundamental principle that states and local governments are best
38   suited to enact legislation that represents the will of their citizens; and
39
40          WHEREAS, although the District of Columbia has passed consecutive balanced
41   budgets since 1997, it still faces the possibility of being shut down yearly because of
42   Congressional deliberations over the federal budget; and
43
44           WHEREAS, District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Delaware
45   U.S. Senator Tom Carper introduced in the 117th Congress H.R. 51 and S. 51, the
46   Washington, D.C., Admission Act, that provides that the state of Washington, D.C., would
47   have all the rights of citizenship as taxpaying American citizens, including two Senators and
48   at least one House member; and
49
50          WHEREAS, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on the United
51   States Congress to address the District of Columbia’s lack of political equality, and the
52   Organization of American States has declared the disenfranchisement of District of Columbia
53   residents a violation of its charter agreement, to which the United States is a signatory:
54
55           NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the members of the House of
56   Representatives of the One Hundred Second General Assembly, Second Regular Session, the
57   Senate concurring therein, hereby express their support for admitting the District of Columbia
58   to the Union and urge the members of the United States Congress to enact federal legislation
59   granting statehood to the people of Washington, D.C.; and
60
61          BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chief Clerk of the Missouri House of
62   Representatives be instructed to prepare a properly inscribed copy of this resolution for the
63   President of the United States of America, the Vice President of the United States of America,
HCR 43                                           3

64 the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the United
65 States Senate, and the members of the Missouri congressional delegation.
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