White House is on the verge to pull their card to use veto powers over legislation that would officially grant Washington, D.C., statehood, which is set to be voted on the House floor probably this coming week.
A statement was released by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that clearly emphasized the legislation is unconstitutional as it violates the 23rd Amendment, which gives District residents the right to vote for electors in presidential elections. Due to the lapses of the bill, the letter also added that if the bill were able to pass the reading in congress, President Trump’s advisers would direct him to veto the legislation for further amendments. The White House will deliberate the bill and oversee the details and data that will strongly support the bill’s purpose and why it should be granted. Moreover, lawmakers expressed their unwillingness to side the White House.
“If, as H.R. 51 proposes, the District were reduced to a small jurisdiction made up of essentially only Federal buildings, the 23rd Amendment would give the tiny population of individuals living within those borders the same voting power in the Electoral College as the smallest state in the country,” the statement said.
The White House is pushing their best foot forward to meticulously study the bill and give the vote. The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the issue Friday for the first time since 1993, and the Democratic-controlled House is expected to pass the legislation for the first time in history of United States of America.
President Trump also spread his thoughts about the bill. Trump has previously made a point that Republicans would be “very, very stupid” to allow the blue city to become a state and grant them two senators along with House Representatives and autonomy of governance. Lawmakers who are behind the bill’s progress are said to be “pushing it to the edge” to make Washington as a state. Moreover, majority of the citizens seems to have favorable views and raised a white flag as their support for the statehood.
Additionally, supporters of the proposed bill earned a total population of over 705,000 people who resides within the District, which is nearly 127,000 more people than reside in the state of Wyoming, according to the U.S. Census Bureau for 2019. Both D.C. and Wyoming share three Electoral College votes, respectively.
To suffice the bill, the District’s nonvoting representative in the House, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, has clearly made her mark as a support that D.C. residents “pay the highest federal taxes per capita of any jurisdiction in the country,” and citizens from the District have fought in every American war and more engaged in socio-economic activities than any other states.
The OMB also figured out the incoming downfall of the bill and said the Framers were deeply appalled that the power of statehood would grant “outsized authority” compare to other states respectively. They noted that having all the federal powers in one location and under the control of a single state will be unjustifiable.
Due to recent George Floyd protests in the nation’s capital. The issue of D.C. statehood became a heightened to stir another bill that separates the D.C. Trump made an effort to use military force to crack down on demonstrators, a move that was at odds with D.C. leadership and this was the clear reason behind the drafting of the said bill.
Due to the disapproval and unsupportive nation branch, the said bill is not expected to pass the Senate.
