On March 15, the US House Judiciary Committee passed the bill to give Utah another House seat, and to give DC a voting seat. Now the bill goes to the full House.
On March 15, the US House Judiciary Committee passed the bill to give Utah another House seat, and to give DC a voting seat. Now the bill goes to the full House.
If this passes this will be totally un-Constitutional.
The Constitution states “Article 1 Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states,…..The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousandâ€
The Constitution also says that the “Article 1 Section 8 clause 17 …District (not exceeding ten miles square)…the seat of the government of the United Statesâ€
Currently DC is 68 square miles; If we return 58 square miles to Maryland, that solves the voting problem.
The size of DC is not an issue; “ten miles square” does not mean “ten square miles”–it means “ten miles on a side,” which the District is.
I do agree that Congress probably does not have the power to grant DC voting representation. I think that would require amending the Constitution, and it should have been done long ago.