The House Committee on Oversight and Reform passed H.R. 51 by a vote of 25-19 Wednesday following an hours-long markup on the current legislative attempt to add Washington, D.C. as America’s 51st state.
Ultimately, if the Constitution is to be followed, the Democrats’ supposed progress doesn’t really matter, because they’re pursuing an end through improper means.
Democrats in the House Committee on Oversight and Reform (two things for which Democrats in Congress are not particularly well-known) carried on with what our own Larry O’Connor appropriately called “obscene Kabuki theatre” pursuing statehood for our nation’s capital. Back in March, O’Connor noted one big problem with the left’s most recent attempt to give D.C. statehood:
The very body discussing DC statehood does not have the power through a simple majority to grant said statehood.
It’s pretty clear in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17:
“[The Congress shall have Power] To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States.”
In addition to what O’Connor pointed out back in March, there’s also the question of what to do with the electoral college votes allocated to D.C. by the 23rd Amendment. If the occupants of the White House end up being the only residents of the shrunken federal territory, one household—likely two or three people—on Pennsylvania Avenue would wield three electoral votes, the same as all the residents of Alaska.
Hellbound and Down 