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US102 - DC Statehood
| Make Washington DC a state. Its population is more than Wyoming and they get no representation in U.S. Congress. | |
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Description
Washington D.C. has no representation in the Senate because it is not and is not part of a US state. They will get Senators and a Representative if they're granted statehood.
Arguments
It's kind of mind-boggling that DC residents (618k) have never had congressional representation. Clearly they should -- a "DC resident" is not a special class of American citizen that should not have a representative vote in the Senate and House.
The U.S. population is 311.5MM, so the current average is 3.1MM/senator and 716k/house rep. Seems to me that DC should have 1 Senator and 1 House Rep. If it's made a state, then it could have two senators, but why not let it be as it is, a district with this one senator and representative.
Counterarguments
While this might have an economic impact on people who make flags (they have to make all news ones with 51 states, and people who have to buy them on July 4th), I think in the end the costs to all the IT systems that would have to add another state, and the postal service would far outway the benefit. The opportunity costs here are not good. People who be spending a bunch of time updating things that add no real value, just to deal with this.
Or we could combine states to add up to the acceptable population size. I'm not really comfortable with the track record of elected officials in DC.
1 Topic
Discussion
Related Ideas
| Let Washington DC have 2 US Senators to give those residences fair representation. More detail | |
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| Washington DC's 618k people should get 1 House Rep (avg is 716k people per House Rep) and 1 Senator (avg is 3.1mm/Sen) More detail | |
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| Enact statehood for DC so those Americans have representation in Congress and full rights to self rule More detail | |
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2% of American citizens have no representation in Congress