The slogan “taxation without representation” was added to D.C. license plates in 2000 as a protest.

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Should Washington, D.C., Become a State?

Last September, for the first time in 26 years, the House of Representatives held a hearing on legislation that would make the District of Columbia a state. More than 200 Democrats have co-sponsored the bill, but Republicans are united in their opposition to the idea.

A representative of a group that advocates for D.C. to have a vote in Congress and a conservative scholar square off about whether the nation’s capital should become a state.

March 30, 2020

The rallying cry of the American Revolution was that “taxation without representation” was tyranny. More than 240 years later, that tyranny still exists for the residents of Washington, D.C.

More than 700,000 people live in Washington, D.C. That’s more people than live in the entire states of Wyoming or Vermont. D.C. residents pay more in federal taxes than 22 states. Since World War I, more than 200,000 D.C. residents have served in the U.S. military, and thousands have died in combat.

Despite all that, D.C. does not have any voting representation in either the Senate or the House of Representatives. (The District does have one non-voting delegate in the House.) Even worse, Congress can tell the locally elected District government what laws it can pass and how it can spend its locally raised money. This situation is grossly unfair.

The solution to this problem is to make Washington, D.C., a state.

More people live in D.C. than in the entire states of Wyoming or Vermont.

The present plan for how to make D.C. a state would simply tighten the boundaries of the “federal district,” as we’ve done before. (Arlington County, which is now part of Virginia, was part of D.C. until 1846.) The parts of D.C. that should belong to all Americans—including the Capitol, major monuments, the White House, and the Supreme Court—would remain in an area controlled by Congress that belongs to everyone. This would satisfy the constitutional requirement that the federal government operate in a federal district that’s separate from any state. But the remaining land—our residential neighborhoods, stores, businesses, schools, churches, and parks—would become the 51st state, with all the rights and representation that states have.

This would finally end the discrimination that all D.C. residents have faced for more than two centuries. It would right a more than 200-year-old wrong. And it would finally end taxation without representation.

—BO SHUFF
Executive Director, DC Vote

Admittedly, it’s odd that the men who declared that just governments derive their power from the “consent of the governed” would establish a capital city for the nation that completely lacks congressional representation.

Under the Constitution, only states have congressmen and senators. While the District of Columbia has a mayor, a city council, and other officials chosen in local elections, it isn’t a state. Nor should it be.

Making D.C. a federal city protects the federal government from state interference. In the Federalist Papers, James Madison defended the creation of an independent district for the federal government, arguing that without it “the public authority might be insulted and its proceedings interrupted with impunity.”

Making D.C. a federal city protects the federal government from interference.

Madison was concerned for good reason: In 1783, a mob of disgruntled soldiers had marched on the national legislature meeting in Philadelphia, forcing members of the legislature to flee the city. Pennsylvania was either unable or unwilling to protect Congress. This threat clarified how easily a single state could thwart the operations of the federal government. The security and function of the federal government can’t depend on the whims of a state. Therefore, the seat of the federal government must operate outside any one state.

The Framers recognized that the District of Columbia would be an exception to the system of government they set up. The goal of government would remain the same—to secure individual rights and liberties. But the means would be different for those in D.C. Congress as a whole—rather than one specific member—has an obligation to the federal city.

This can be frustrating for D.C. residents, but we must not tinker with the system the Founders set up. To do so would only create a bigger problem, because the Constitution is incompatible with D.C. as the 51st state.

—JULIA SHAW
Political Scientist based in Alexandria, Virginia

Key Facts About D.C.

Date Founded

July 16, 1790

The District of Columbia was established by the U.S. Constitution to serve as the capital of the new federal government. Before that, Philadelphia was the nation’s capital, but some pro-slavery states objected to having the capital in a northern city where it might be influenced by abolitionists. The federal government didn’t move to D.C. until 1800.