Issues D.C. Council Actions Statehood July 8, 2009 Hearing on 51st State Commission Establishment Act of 2009
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| July 8, 2009 Hearing on 51st State Commission Establishment Act of 2009 |
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Council Member Yvette M. Alexander, Chairperson of the D.C. Council's Committee on Aging and Community Affairs, chaired a public hearing on Bill 18-177, the "51st State Commission Establishment Act of 2009" on Wednesday, July 8, 2009. Also present was Council Member Harry Thomas, Jr., who introduced the bill on March 13, 2009, and Council Member Michael A. Brown, chair of the Council's Committee on Statehood and Self-Determination. The bill was co-sponsored by Council Members Graham, Michael Brown, Cheh, Wells, Barry, Bowser, Mendelson, and Gray. Two members of the Committee were not present, Council Members Jim Graham (Ward 1) and Mary Cheh (Ward 3).
In his opening statement, Council Member Thomas said statehood is "the will of the people." The citizens of the District of Columbia have spoken that they want statehood and voted overwhelmingly for it in 1980 an 1982. He noted that the District's elected officials have been sending a mixed message about what we really want. Is it merely "voting rights" in one or two Houses of Congress or full statehood, which automatically brings full representation in Congress? At the beginning of the hearing, before any witnesses had testified, Chairperson Alexander decided to strike the bill's introductory language that referred to voting representation in the Congress without designation as a state. She emphasized that statehood should be our goal and supported creation of the commission. She also noted that the Committee had reserved $100,000 for statehood.
The District's statehood senators, Senators Paul Strauss and Michael D. Brown, led off the witnesses. They were joined by Sgt. Deke Kelley, an Iraq War veteran and an intern in their office, who testified in favor of statehood and the commission. Although originally from Austin, Texas, Sgt. Kelley is now one of 40,000 veterans in D.C. and is actively working to help the people of D.C. regain their full democratic rights. Senator Brown noted that the District has more veterans per capita than many states, including California, New York and New Jersey.
Congress has the District's 2010 budget before it now. Senator Strauss noted that since the days of Rep. John McMillan, who as chairman of the House District Committee in the 1960's saw D.C. as his personal fiefdom, "the Democrats in Congress have changed, but not the game." As a colony, the District is still subject to Congressional whims and a grandstanding and can't decide how to spend its own money. He did note that the longtime Congressional rider that prohibited D.C. from spending its money to support a statehood commission is no longer attached to our budget act.
The public witnesses strongly supported statehood and the creation of a statehood commission or, alternatively, the reactivation of the old commission, or an amended version of it, which is still in the D.C. Code but has been moribund since Congress first forbade us to spend our own money to promote statehood. The public witnesses were Samuel Jordan, a ward 7 resident and former chair of the D.C. Statehood Party, Ann Loikow, a ward 3 resident and member of D.C. Statehood - Yes We Can!, Shelley Tomkin, a professor of political science and first Vice Chair of the Ward 3 Democratic Committee, which recently unanimously endorsed statehood, David Schwartzman, a ward 4 resident and member of the D.C. Statehood Green Party and D.C. Statehood - Yes We Can!, Elinor Hart, a ward 1 resident and member of D.C. Statehood - Yes We Can!, Joyce Robinson-Paul, a ward 5 resident and member of the D.C. Statehood Green Party, Wallace Dickson, a local businessman, ward 1 resident and member of D.C. Statehood - Yes We Can!, and Beverly Hunter, a D.C. citizen.
Sam Jordan eloquently supported the need for a strong, well-resourced and effective statehood commission. He faulted the recent campaign for a vote in the House for our non-voting Delegate, noting that "at the community level, the grass roots, the Congressional campaign did not inspire, did not energize because it did not teach the fundamentals of the principles and history of the universal fight for enfranchisement as it applies to the District of Columbia. Without such grassroots support from an informed citizenry, democracy can never prevail. That is the work of the 51st State Commission." In response to questions from the Committee members, Mr. Jordan questioned the wisdom of giving more D.C. taxpayers' money to DC Vote. "If I were DC Vote and had been given five, six million dollars of public money for the pursuit of a failed, undemocratic campaign strategy and then offered another five hundred thousand dollars to pursue the same strategy, I would guarantee nothing but failure. Success would take my lunch... Without public participation in DC Vote's decision-making process, we can't justify a public investment of this magnitude...."
Since Congress no longer prohibits D.C. from funding a statehood commission, Ann Loikow urged the Committee to transfer to the statehood commission the $250,000 the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Support Act of 2009 allocates to "a competitive grant" to be awarded to "an organization with a history of promoting DC Voting rights." Ms. Loikow also suggested that the $250,000 in the budget for the Office of the Secretary earmarked for DC Vote also be transfered to the statehood commission, which would be accountable to the citizens of D.C. and the District government in a way that a private organization is not. She said it is time that the District government be the one actively promoting statehood and our desire for equal rights and full democracy. She also suggested that commission membership not be restricted to just experts in constitutional law and history. To properly do the job, we will need experts in public relations, government operations, education and curriculum development, finance, and political grassroots organizing, among other specialities.
Shelley Tomkin spoke for the Ward 3 Democratic Committee, the first D.C. ward committee to enthusiastically endorse statehood. She suggested that the commission include “two” as opposed to “one” appointed member from each Ward, as well as the Shadow Senators and Representative. This would give the people more a stake in the commission and a stronger desire to make statehood a reality. She suggested that all commissioners be required to be District residents, as they were in the original statehood commission. She also supported the bill's putting a deadline on the Commission's submission to the Council and the Congress of detailed reports with findings and recommendations for the new state.
David Schwartzman pointed out that "the struggle for D.C. Statehood is simultaneously a struggle for the economic, social and environmental human rights of our residents and likewise the latter struggle empowers the struggle for statehood." He also strongly urged the Council to join District citizens "in petitioning Delegate Norton to permanently withdraw her Voting Rights bill which if passed would simply give her a vote on a final bill in the House and effectively set back our struggle for full self-determination to the indefinite future. In place of a token 'incremental' approach, [he urged] Delegate Norton to submit ASAP a bill for D.C. Statehood, and join us in a now revitalized campaign for its passage...." Statehood, he noted, only requires a simple majority vote in Congress and signature by President Obama.
Elinor Hart pointed out that the only remedy for Congressional interference with the actions of the Council is statehood. She also said that the mission of the Commission should be educating people in D.C. and throughout the United states about our need for statehood. She was followed by Joyce Robinson-Paul, a longtime statehood advocate, who strongly supported getting the commission approved and started as quickly as possible.
Cleveland Park businessman Wally Dickson urged that the Commission on Statehood the bill establishes be adequately funded so that it might initiate and promulgate a national conversation on the question of D.C. Statehood. "American citizens who live outside the District of Columbia have little or no knowledge or appreciation of the issues, and generally do not understand or appreciate that residents of their nation’s capital city, unlike any other capital city in the world, do not share the rights and privileges of citizenship everyone else enjoys and takes for granted at birth." He was also appalled that 152 House members, including D.C.'s Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, eagerly signed on to legislation authorizing another referendum asking Puerto Ricans whether they want independence or to become a state, while they trample on the desires of the citizens of the District of Columbia.
Council Member Michael A. Brown invited everyone to come back on Monday, July 13th, to testify before his Committee on Statehood and Self-Determination on the economic and financial impact of D.C. statehood. The full hearing on the Thomas bill can be viewed online at: http://oct.dc.gov/services/on_demand_video/channel13/july2009/07_08_09_AGING.asx.
Some of the testimony is reprinted below.
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Testimony of Shelley L. Tomkin 1st Vice Chair, Ward Three Democratic Committee On 51st State Commission Establishment Act of 2009 I wish to thank the Committee for the opportunity to testify on Bill 18-0177 entitled The 51st State Commission Establishment Act of 2009. I am testifying on behalf of the Ward 3 Democratic Committee as that organization’s 1st Vice Chair. I do so as a reflection of the fact that the Ward 3 Democrats have been the first Democratic Ward level political organization to approve a resolution endorsing D.C. Statehood within recent weeks. This resolution was approved by Committee delegates at our June 18thmeeting. As I represent the Ward 3 Democratic Committee, I will briefly review the substance of that resolution. The resolution endorsed full Statehood for the District of Columbia as opposed to full voting representation without Statehood. The motivating reasons behind the resolution are familiar ones---in sum that citizens of the District of Columbia deserve the same level of voting representation in the House of Representatives and the Senate and the benefits of State sovereignty that other U.S. citizens enjoy—“as matter of simple Justice,” and equality. The views expressed in this testimony have also been influenced by my status as a native Washingtonian and professor of political science who has been striving over the last 30 years to promote civic engagement among my students and community. It is particularly disheartening to explain to the significant number of my students who are DC residents and U.S. citizens that their rights are not equal to those of their classmates who are U.S. citizens from any of the 50 states—though their responsibilities to pay federal taxes are the same. I commend the Committee for offering this legislation with the stated intent of enhancing “the educational and promotional efforts regarding the lack of full Congressional Representation for the District of Columbia.” Educational efforts focused on DC’s lack of voting rights and Statehood are extremely important as much confusion, misunderstanding, and apathy characterize public understanding of this topic both within and outside of DC. Moreover, one of the significant strengths of this legislation as currently drafted is its requirement that the 51st State Commission submit “detailed reports and findings to the U.S. Congress and the Council” within 180 days. This deadline will expedite the Committee’s action and prevent inaction and delay. Thus I am testifying today to urge the Council to approve the 51st State Commission Establishment Act of 2009 but with three suggested modifications. --First, the legislative language in the bill mandates that the 51st State Commission conduct a “full and complete study” of actions that must be taken in order to establish DC as a state “or” to obtain full voting representation without designation as a state. The “or” in this statement would allow for the Commission to refrain from educating about and promoting Statehood. The “or” should at very least be changed to an “and” to prevent that outcome. --Second, as an officer of a grassroots community organization, I would urge that the current legislation include “two” as opposed to “one” appointed members from each Ward. Further I would urge that the Shadow Senators and Representative be included as members of the Commission. While these changes will increase the size of the Commission, they will also expand its reach and its ability to realize its objectives. --Third, I suggest the addition of statutory language that assures that all the appointed members of the Commission be residents of the District of Columbia. S 1-125, the current statute includes such a requirement. Finally I wish to thank the Committee for holding this hearing and for drafting this legislative proposal. It constitutes one significant step toward realizing the goal of complete self-determination for the citizens of the District of Columbia.
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D.C. Statehood Green Party
Public Hearing, Bill 18-177, the 51st State Commission Establishment Act of 2009
Councilmember Yvette M. Alexander, Chairperson of the Committee on Aging and Community Affairs
Wednesday, July 8, 2009,
Testimony of David Schwartzman
My testimony
I applaud the excellent proposals for revision of Bill 18-177 made by the three previous speakers (Sam Jordan, Ann Loikow, DC Statehood Now- Yes We Can!, and Shelley Tomkin, Ward 3 Democratic Committee). In particular, we support the transfer of the now tentatively budgeted $500,000 to the work of this Commission. We also are delighted with the announcement of Councilmember Alexander that the wording providing for the option of only full voting representation in Congress without designation as a state is now deleted from the previous version of this bill. I urge that the charge be expanded to: “to expand educational and promotional efforts regarding the lack of full Congressional representation for the District of Columbia and the lack of the powers of full self-governance common to all other citizens of the United States residing in the 50 states.” Achievement of full voting representation in Congress without the status of a state is not only a mirage given the likely constitutional objections pointed out by legal scholars such as Jonathan Siegel, Professor of Law, George Washington University (and who will we “trade” two Senators with, parallel to the flawed approach of the Voting Rights Act?), but even gaining such full representation would continue our neo-colonial status under the rule of Congress, since we would still lack the permanentlegislative and budgetary autonomy only obtainable through statehood. Indeed, the most precious voting right of DC citizens is the now denied right to pass legislation and budgets without potential veto by Congress. The struggle for DC Statehood is simultaneously a struggle for the economic, social and environmental human rights of our residents and likewise the latter struggle empowers the struggle for statehood. Therefore, critical to building mass participation in the struggle for DC statehood is the empowerment of our residents, a goal that the Council and Mayor should surely pursue. The Council must insure a just FY 2010 budget that better meets essential needs of our low income and working class majority, especially in these times of economic depression. This will require making our presently regressive DC tax structure progressive by hiking the tax rate of our wealthy residents, especially DC millionaires, and giving tax relief to the bottom 60% income bracket. Revenue thereby accrued should be targeted to programs that better meet essential needs, especially to the sharp reduction of child poverty. In other words, the Council and Mayor should apply Obama’s promised federal tax medicine locally. Finally, we strongly urge the Council to join us in petitioning Delegate Norton to permanently withdraw her Voting Rights bill which if passed would simply give her a vote on a final bill in the House and effectively set back our struggle for full self-determination to the indefinite future. In place of a token “incremental” approach, we urge Delegate Norton to submit asap a bill for DC Statehood, and join us in a now revitalized campaign for its passage, requiring a simple majority vote in Congress and signature by President Obama. We expect the Council and Mayor to join us in this effort. David Schwartzman, DC Statehood Green Party _________________________________________________________________________________
Testimony presented at the Public Hearing on Bill 18-177, the 51st State Commission Establishment Act of 2009 Before the Committee on Aging and Community Affairs On July 8, 2009 by Elinor Hart Good morning. My name is Elinor Hart. I am active in the DC Statehood Yes We Can coalition and I live in Ward 1. I want to commend you, Councilmember Alexander as well as the other co introducers and cosponsors of the 51st State Commission legislation. And I want to thank you for having this important hearing. I am surprised, however, that it has taken four months for the legislation to get to the hearing stage. I am sure everyone on the Council is sick and tired of the need for emergency and temporary legislation. I know the Council resents a bunch of Senators trying to make your careful deliberations about gun laws meaningless, because I saw and heard you say so on the steps of the Wilson Building on March 2. I am certain the Council objects to the House of Representatives imposing a school voucher program on the District. Surely the Council is fed up with Congress telling you that you can’t budget local tax dollars for abortions for poor women or a ballot measure to determine whether we can permit the use of marijuana for medical reasons. Yet the Council has been so slow to embrace the only remedy that will keep Congress from interfering with your actions. It is high time to pick up the pace and get the 51st State Commission legislation marked-up and passed. And it is time to fund the 51st State Commission. In my view, the failure of the Council to include funding for the Commission in the FY 2010 budget was poor stewardship. The Council has the option of reviving the moribund Commission or creating a new one. Whatever option the Council chooses, the legislation needs to address three important areas: 1) Makeup of the Commission: It needs to be broadly representative. Therefore, members should be appointed by Councilmembers and the Mayor. A workable approach might be for each Councilmember and the Mayor to appoint two members. 2) Organization and Authority: The Commission should elect its own chair and other officers. It should have the authority to hire staff and enter into contracts. 3) Mission: I believe the mission of the Commission should be to educate the residents of the District of Columbia and the 50 states about statehood and the need for statehood. Given the work of the Commission of the eighties and the special Committee on Statehood and Self Determination, I don’t believe any further study or research other than updating needs to be done. However, as part of its educational mission, it would probably be a good idea for the Commission to issue a report about the necessary and appropriate legislation and administrative action that must be taken in order to establish the residential and commercial areas of the District of Columbia as a state of the United States of America. The Commission needs to educate two audiences about our need for statehood. One audience is District residents. The Statehood Commission of the eighties clearly did a good job of educating DC residents. We know that from the votes in favor of a Statehood Convention and the Statehood Constitution. The other audience is the people in the 50 states. Educating that audience is a huge task. But we have a good way to begin, and that is with the 140 million people from the 50 states who visit their nation’s capital every year. I look forward to the mark-up and the passage of the legislation and to supporting the work of the Commission, none of which can happen too soon. _________________________________________________________________________________
TESTIMONY of Wallace Gordon Dickson on the DC Council’s consideration of Bill 18-177 creating a Commission on DC Statehood.
Thursday, July 8, 2009:
I applaud the DC City Council for its leadership on the issue of Statehood for the District of Columbia, and your willing acceptance of the constructive suggestions you have heard from my fellow DC statehood advocates here today.
I grew up in a section of the District where the citizens – many years ago – were granted their Constitutional entitlement to full participation in their government at all levels – that section of the old city is known to us today as Arlington County, Virginia. Then 30 years ago I moved into the part of Washington that remains disenfranchised. I am a resident of Adams Morgan and a Ward One Democrat. And I have been engaged in the DC Statehood NOW! – Yes We Can! Campaign, where I have been helping to organize support for this initiative among local businessmen. I want the Council to know that the people at the grassroots level are behind you and will support you on this issue.
My concern today is for the misunderstanding by the people, generally, of the difference between “voting rights” and ”statehood.” And we must work to clarify the difference, and all of us must be working from the same page. The Commission on Statehood must establish a broad, effective, nationwide education program to help people distinguish these two concepts.
The people of the District of Columbia are not “asking” for their Constitutional rights – we are DEMANDING the autonomy and standing in our own governance which is the promise of our U.S. Constitution and, as United States citizens, our rightful American birthright! We demand our full Constitutional right to full participation and standing in our government, at all levels, and to have and enjoy the autonomy that all other U.S. citizens enjoy, that will enable us to control our own destiny. One vote in the House of Representatives does not fulfill the guarantee and the promise of equal representation provided by the Constitution of the United States of America. District residents have been denied their birthright for too long.
I urge that the Commission on Statehood the bill under consideration establishes be adequately funded in order that it might initiate and promulgate a national conversation on the question of DC Statehood. American citizens who live outside the District of Columbia have little or no knowledge or appreciation of the issues, and generally do not understand or appreciate that residents of their nation’s capital city, unlike any other capital city in the world, do not share the rights and privileges of citizenship everyone else enjoys and takes for granted at birth. A nationwide education program on this issue is a vital component of any successful campaign for DC statehood, as the testimony we’ve heard here today makes clear.
The Commission must be adequately staffed and funded to fulfill this educational mission on a national scale. Those who oppose DC statehood must be brought into the debate, because essentially this is a non-partisan issue. And the Commission must be provided with funding sufficient to provide effective lobbying assistance where needed across the country and in the Halls of Congress.
The Commission on DC Statehood should be made permanent, to be terminated only when DC Statehood has been finally attained. If we are serious about our intentions on this issue, we can do no less that provide the authority and funding sufficient for the Commission to mount an aggressive, well financed campaign to attain our goal if DC Statehood. Otherwise, we’re just wasting our time.
So I urge the DC Council to ensure that specific language is inserted in this legislation providing full authority and adequate funding for such a national education campaign and lobbying effort, to continue until we reach our goal.
Wallace Gordon Dickson
Ward ONE DC resident
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Stand Up! for Democracy in D.C. Coalition
www.FreeDC.org v (202) 232-2500 v www.StandUpforDemoc 1715 4 th St. NW Washington, DC 20001 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, July 20, 2009 Contact: Anise Jenkins (202) 361-9739 Contact: Bill Mosley (202) 360-5414 Today, the Stand Up! for Democracy in DC Coalition sent the following statement to the DC Council as part of the record of its July 8 hearing on Bill 18-177, the "51st State Commission Establishment Act of 2009". STATEMENT BY THE STAND UP FOR DEMOCRACY IN DC COALITION
TO THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON AGING AND COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
ON BILL 18-177
“THE 51 st STATE COMMISSION ESTABLISHMENT ACT OF 2009”
The Stand Up! for Democracy in DC Coalition expresses its appreciation for the efforts of Chairman Yvette Alexander, as well as councilmember Michael A. Brown, chair of the Special Committee on Statehood and Self-Determination, for moving this important legislation forward. The original Statehood Commission, established in 1980 as part of the citizen referendum on statehood, did valuable work in educating District citizens on the need for DC statehood and the possibilities of achieving it. Its work included developing a curriculum for public schools, training public school teachers on bringing statehood to the classroom, testifying before Congress on statehood legislation, and establishing a Statehood Resource Center. Unfortunately, after the defeat of the statehood bill in the House of Representatives in 1993, the commission’s budget was reduced and its activities lapsed. A revived Statehood Commission would be a valuable resource for educating and engaging the public in the District of Columbia over the benefits of statehood and the possibility of achieving it. Statehood is the only solution to the District’s disenfranchisement that provides full citizenship to District residents – with full voting representation in both houses of Congress and control over our own budgets, laws and criminal justice system. Furthermore, while it is important that we take our cause to other parts of the United States and indeed to the world, it is even more important that the citizens of DC be involved in the struggle. We need to be able to put thousands of people in the halls of Congress, in the streets and in the neighborhoods to demand statehood. If we do not take our own cause seriously, how can we expect others to do so? The discussion of restoring the Statehood Commission could not come at a better time. With the election of President Obama, who has expressed his support for DC statehood, and Democratic supermajorities in both houses of Congress – including a “filibuster-proof” majority of 60 votes in the Senate – the stars are aligned in the District’s favor in a way they may not be again for generations. (We could hope that support for justice and democracy would be non-partisan, but the fact is that most Republicans have opposed expanded democratic rights for the overwhelmingly Democratic District). We would urge that the mission of the Statehood Commission be statehood, and only that. The pursuit of legislation for a single vote in the House of Representatives has led us up a blind alley. Not only would the bill leave us short of full democracy, it is – as we have seen – vulnerable to riders from members of Congress hostile to us. With statehood, we would be have control over our own local affairs and would be free from the heavy hand of Capitol Hill. For this reason, we support Councilmember Alexander’s decision to remove the redundant language on “full voting representation” from the bill. Voting representation is inseparable from all other states’ rights. A revived Statehood Commission would be a critical weapon in ensuring that the District seizes this historic opportunity to reclaim our birthright, won during the American Revolution and subsequently stripped away, as full and equal citizens in our nation. We urge the Council to act quickly on this legislation. Submitted by: Anise Jenkins, President Bill Mosley, Secretary Malcolm Wiseman, Treasurer
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