D.C. Statehood: The Historical Context and Recent Congressional Actions.

This 1997 CRS Report was written a decade after the 1987 report, but by a different analyst.

Congressional Research Service. D.C. Statehood: The Historical Context and Recent

Congressional Actions. by Garrine P. Laney. 97-1004 GOV. Washington DC: Library of Congress, 1997, https://congressional-proquest-com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/congressional/result/congressional/congdocumentview?accountid=14784&groupid=95339&parmId=17C996A1A52&rsId=17C996A02C6 (accessed November 18, 2021).

“Some other countries have provided residents of federal capitals with representation in their federal legislatures; the U.S. Congress has declined various options to do so.”

This CRS report was published 10 years after the 1987 report. The author of this report is different from the 1987 report, but they share the same title as the “Analyst in American National Government Government Division.” This report contains similar content as its predecessor in that it provides historical background of the DC statehood movement and arguments for and against granting statehood and congressional representation to Washington D.C. However, this report includes major updates in the D.C. statehood movement from the past ten years, from the 100th Congress in 1987 to the 105th Congress in 1997. These updates relate to actions taken on H.R. 51 and the introduction of related bills. The historical context from 1783-1987 is also much more rigorous in this report, as it is about four times the length of the historical background from the earlier report.

The 1997 report contains six arguments for and against statehood. The wordings of these arguments are almost exactly the same as they were in the older report, but the most notable difference is that the 1997 report omitted the argument that opposition to Statehood is “veiled racism.” This 1997 report also contains arguments for and against retroceding D.C. to Maryland. This report emphasizes how the lack of democratic representation in the American district capital contrasts representation of capitals from countries all over the world, from every continent. Specifically, this report highlights systems of representation of federal districts in Australia, Brazil, Germany, India, and Nigeria, to show that the United States is the only democratic country in the world to not give congressional representation to citizens of its district capital.

Effectiveness

This report is a 23-page single-spaced document, so it is about four times as long as the 1987 report. The writing style is still accessible to a general audience, but its length is more useful for a researcher who wants to learn more about the history of the D.C. statehood movement. In the 1987 report, the historical background was four double-spaced pages, but in this document, the historical background from 1783 – 1987 is eight single-spaced pages. The additional historical information on the 100th-105th Congresses is four single-spaced pages. The font used in the 1997 report is more reader-friendly because it does not use the same harsh typewriter font used in 1987. Unlike the 1987 report, the 1997 report includes footnoted citations, which is especially useful for researchers.

We would still highly rate this source’s overall utility as a snapshot of how the DC statehood movement was analyzed at a particular moment in time. The greater length of this document demonstrates the growing intensity of the DC statehood movement from the past ten years, and the comparison of the U.S. with other nations strongly suggests that the writer of this document has a bias in favor of granting statehood. The absence of the argument that opposition to DC statehood is “veiled racism” may also be part of this writer’s discomfort with the topic, as this was clearly a conscious omission given that they had access to the 1987 report and mostly copied the arguments word for word. However, it is more likely that this omission was made as a strategic move, given that the author appears to have a bias in favor of granting statehood and wants to see change after ten years of failure. The author likely does not want to accuse other people of racism in fear that these opponents will become more defensive and even more years of failure would ensue.