(Washington, D.C.) — The U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee met Tuesday to hear testimony from proponents of making Washington, D.C. the nation’s 51st state.
The following is a statement from Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:
“Washington, D.C. residents dutifully pay their taxes, defend this country against all enemies foreign and domestic, and fulfill their obligations of citizenship. Yet, the District’s more than 700,000 residents have no voice when Congress makes final decisions on their lives, nor when Congress sends those decisions to the president. This must change, not only because it is the right and just action to take, but because full voting rights for all District residents is a defining civil rights struggle in the 21st Century.”
“Congress has the power to make Washington, D.C. residents full stakeholders in our democracy; it only needs the political will to follow through and do so.”
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About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law – The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination. The principal mission of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is to secure, through the rule of law, equal justice for all, particularly in the areas of voting rights, criminal justice, fair housing and community development, economic justice, educational opportunities, and hate crimes. For more information, please visit https://lawyerscommittee.org.
