Bill Text: IL SR0038 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urges the United States Congress to enact federal legislation granting statehood to the people of Washington, D.C.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 11-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-03-18 - Added as Co-Sponsor Sen. David Koehler [SR0038 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-SR0038-Introduced.html

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SENATE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The people living on the land that would
eventually be designated as the District of Columbia were
provided the right to vote for representation in Congress when
the United States Constitution was ratified in 1788; and
WHEREAS, The passage of the Organic Act of 1801 placed the
District of Columbia under the exclusive authority of the
United States Congress and abolished residents' right to vote
for members of Congress and the President and Vice President
of the United States; and
WHEREAS, Residents of the District of Columbia were
granted the right to vote for the President and Vice President
through passage of the Twenty–Third Amendment to the United
States Constitution in 1961; and
WHEREAS, As of 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau data estimates
that the District of Columbia's population is approximately
712,000 residents and is comparable to the populations of
Wyoming (582,000), Vermont (623,000), Alaska (731,000), and
North Dakota (765,000); and
WHEREAS, Residents of the District of Columbia share all
the responsibilities of United States citizenship, including

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paying more federal taxes than residents of 22 states, serving
on federal juries, and defending the United States as members
of the United States Armed Forces in every war since the War
for Independence; yet, they are denied full representation in
Congress; and
WHEREAS, The residents of the District of Columbia
themselves have endorsed statehood for the District of
Columbia and passed a District–wide referendum on November 8,
2016, which favored statehood by 86%; and
WHEREAS, No other democratic nation denies the right of
self–government, including participation in its national
legislature, to the residents of its capital; and
WHEREAS, The residents of the District of Columbia lack
the full democracy, equality, and citizenship enjoyed by the
residents of the 50 states; and
WHEREAS, The United States Congress has interfered
repeatedly with the District of Columbia's limited
self–government by enacting laws that affect the District of
Columbia's expenditure of its locally-raised tax revenue; this
includes barring the usage of locally-raised revenue, thus
violating the fundamental principle that states and local
governments are best suited to enact legislation that

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represents the will of their citizens; and
WHEREAS, Although the District of Columbia has passed
consecutive balanced budgets since FY 1997, it still faces the
possibility of being shut down yearly because of Congressional
deliberations over the federal budget; and
WHEREAS, In the 117th Congress, District of Columbia
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Delaware U.S. Senator Tom
Carper introduced H.R. 51 and S. 51, the Washington, D.C.
Admission Act, that provides that the State of Washington,
D.C. would have all the rights of citizenship as taxpaying
American citizens, including two Senators and at least one
House member; and
WHEREAS, The United Nations Human Rights Committee has
called on the United States Congress to address the District
of Columbia's lack of political equality, and the Organization
of American States has declared the disenfranchisement of the
District of Columbia residents a violation of its charter
agreement to which the United States is a signatory;
therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING HEREIN, that we urge the members of

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the United States Congress to enact federal legislation
granting statehood to the people of Washington, D.C.; and be
it further
RESOLVED, That the State of Illinois supports admitting
Washington, D.C. into the Union as a state of the United States
of America.