The New Columbia Statehood Commission Report

This 2016 report contains a draft of New Columbia's Constitution and state boundary maps.

New Columbia Statehood Commission. Constitution Commission Report. July 8, 2016.

Online,https://statehood.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/statehood/publication/attachments/New-Columbia-Statehood-Commission-Constitutition-Commission-Report.pdf (Accessed November 11, 2021).

"At the 2016 Emancipation Day breakfast, Mayor Bowser, alongside Chairman Mendelson, announced that Washington, DC would pursue the Tennessee Plan by creating a contemporary constitution and a national advocacy strategy to finally give Washington, DC the rights it deserves. "

This 2016 document provides the history and guiding values of the New Columbia Statehood Commission, which was created in 2014 to coordinate D.C.’s statehood movement. Most of the document’s contents are the seven attachments: the May 6th Draft of New Columbia’s state Constitution, the Comment Log for proposed edits/documented agreements of the Constitution’s contents, the June 28th Draft of the Constitution, Office of Planning Documents and Maps, a Town Hall Flyer, Convention Flyer, and Advisory Referendum Resolution.

The Constitution includes a Preamble, Bill of Rights, and eight Articles for the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches, Budget and Financial Management, Borrowing, Initiative Referendum & Recall, and Miscellaneous, and Transfer of Offices. Some edits were made between the May 6th Draft and the June 28th Draft of the Constitution, according to the Comment Log. For example, one commenter asked to remove gendered language from the constitution, which the commission agreed with and changed.

The proposed boundaries for the state of New Columbia are based on the McMillan Plan of 1901-1902, with some modifications. However, the boundaries for the new state are essentially what they already are for the current federal district of Washington, D.C., excluding the designated Seat of the Federal Government. Maps are included at the end of the document, both from 2016 and from the 1901-1902 McMillan Commission Site Plan.

Proposed boundaries for New Columbia with the Seat of the Federal Government highlighted.

Effectiveness

This document is 127 pages long, but it contains information relevant to a general audience and researchers. While the Table of Contents is organized and straightforward, links and page numbers for each attachment would be useful for such a lengthy document. The maps at the end of the document for the proposed state’s borders are detailed and easy to read. The maps and charts from the 1901-1902 McMillan Commission are not as detailed, but general audiences and researchers may find them to be visually interesting, historically significant, and even frameable, if better quality images were found elsewhere.

Overall, this document provides a quality summary of the New Columbia Statehood Commission’s actions and guiding principles towards drafting a constitution for the State of New Columbia. D.C. residents would have found this document useful in 2016 before voting on the proposed resolution contained at the end of the document, and it is an important piece of the current statehood efforts in the House of Representatives and Senate.