Before you vote › Federal bills

H.R. 51: Washington, D.C. Admission Act

119th Congress · introduced 2025-01-03 · Government Operations and Politics · Latest: Referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committees on Rules, Armed Services, the Judiciary, and Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

federal

Save to my notebook What does this mean? Print

Official title

Washington, D.C. Admission Act

Plain summary

Washington, D.C. Admission Act This bill provides for the establishment of the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, and its admission into the United States. The state is composed of most of the territory of the District of Columbia (DC), excluding a specified area that encompasses the U.S. Capitol, the White House, the U.S. Supreme Court building, federal monuments, and federal office buildings adjacent to the National Mall and the U.S. Capitol. The excluded territory shall be known as the Capital and serve as the seat of the government of the United States, as provided for in Article I of the Constitution. The state may not impose taxes on federal property except as Congress permits. The bill provides for the DC Mayor to issue a proclamation for the first elections to Congress of two Senators and one Representative of the state. The bill eliminates the office of Delegate to the House of Representatives. The bill applies current DC laws to the state. DC judicial proceedings and contractual obligations shall continue under the state’s authority. The bill also provides for specified federal obligations to transfer to the state upon its certification that it has funds and laws in place to assume the obligations. These include maintaining a retirement fund for judges and operating public defender services. The bill establishes a commission that is generally comprised of members who are appointed by DC and federal government officials to advise on an orderly transition to statehood.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

What a vote does

PSI Sci description of the legislative step (not an opinion).

The strongest published arguments

Alternatives

Needs sources: no published alternatives yet (for example a different bill, a law instead of an amendment, or keeping current law). We only show items backed by a published source. Suggest one.

Officials and money

Sponsor: Del. Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC-At Large] · 209 cosponsors

Money: No cost estimate published yet. No linked contracts or vendors yet.

Sources

• Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House)
• Congress.gov
• Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-119hr51.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/119/hr>

Record fed-us-cong119-hr51 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong119 · updated 2026-11-03 by psicol fed-bills