1.1 	A resolution
1.2 	memorializing the President and Congress to pass federal legislation granting statehood 
1.3 	to the people of Washington, D.C.
1.4 	WHEREAS, the people living on the land that would eventually be designated as the District 
1.5 	of Columbia were provided the right to vote for representation in Congress when the United States 
1.6 	Constitution was ratified in 1788; and
1.7 	WHEREAS, the passage of the Organic Act of 1801 placed the District of Columbia under 
1.8 	the exclusive authority of the United States Congress and abolished residents' right to vote for 
1.9 	members of Congress and the President and Vice President of the United States; and
1.10 	WHEREAS, residents of the District of Columbia were granted the right to vote for the 
1.11 	President and Vice President through passage of the 23rd Amendment to the United States 
1.12 	Constitution in 1961; and
1.13 	WHEREAS, according to the 2020 census, the District of Columbia's population of 689,545 
1.14 	residents is comparable to the populations of Alaska (733,391), North Dakota (779,094), Vermont 
1.15 	(643,077), and Wyoming (576,851); and
1.16 	WHEREAS, residents of the District of Columbia share all of the responsibilities of United 
1.17 	States citizenship, including paying more federal taxes than residents of 22 states, service on federal 
1.18 	juries, and defending the United States as members of the United States armed forces in every war 
1.19 	since the War for Independence, yet they are denied full representation in Congress; and
1.20 	WHEREAS, the residents of the District of Columbia themselves have endorsed statehood 
1.21 	for the District of Columbia and passed a district-wide referendum on November 8, 2016, which 
1.22 	favored statehood by 86 percent; and
1.23 	WHEREAS, no other democratic nation denies the right of self-government, including 
1.24 	participation in its national legislature, to the residents of its capital; and
2.1 	WHEREAS, the residents of the District of Columbia lack full democracy, equality, and 
2.2 	citizenship enjoyed by the residents of the 50 states; and
2.3 	WHEREAS, the United States Congress has repeatedly interfered with the District of 
2.4 	Columbia's limited self-government by enacting laws that affect the District of Columbia's 
2.5 	expenditure of its locally raised tax revenue, including barring the usage of locally raised revenue, 
2.6 	thus violating the fundamental principle that states and local governments are best suited to enact 
2.7 	legislation that represents the will of its citizens; and
2.8 	WHEREAS, although the District of Columbia has passed consecutive balanced budgets 
2.9 	since fiscal year 1997, it still faces the possibility of being shut down yearly because of Congressional 
2.10 	deliberations over the federal budget; and
2.11 	WHEREAS, District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Delaware U.S. 
2.12 	Senator Tom Carper introduced in the 118th Congress H.R. 51 and S. 51, the Washington, D.C. 
2.13 	Admission Act, that provides that the State of Washington, D.C. would have all the rights of 
2.14 	citizenship as taxpaying American citizens, including two Senators and at least one House of 
2.15 	Representatives member; and
2.16 	WHEREAS, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on the United States 
2.17 	Congress to address the District of Columbia's lack of political equality, and the Organization of 
2.18 	American States has declared the disenfranchisement of the District of Columbia residents a violation 
2.19 	of its charter agreement, to which the United States is a signatory; NOW, THEREFORE,
2.20 	BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that it urges the President 
2.21 	and the Congress of the United States to admit Washington, D.C. into the Union as a State of the 
2.22 	United States of America; and
2.23 	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is directed 
2.24 	to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to the President of the United States, the 
2.25 	President and Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and the Clerk of the United States 
2.26 	House of Representatives, and Minnesota's Senators and Representatives in Congress.