A hearing on the statehood of Washington, D.C. to be held at the House of Representatives is now planned to take place on September 19 at 10:00 a.m.
The bill aiming to make D.C. the country’s 51st state was introduced by the District’s non-voting delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) and previously put off due to the House testimony of former Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III in July.
Holmes announced the new date on Monday.
“I am particularly grateful to Chairman Cummings for his leadership and for quickly pressing forward with this hearing, which is necessary for our D.C. statehood bill to move to the House floor,” she said in a press release.
The bill named “H.R. 51” has a record number of co-sponsors (over 200) and gathered historic support, including from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD), who wrote an outstanding op-ed on D.C. statehood for the Washington Post, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Nearly 100 national advocacy groups have endorsed the bill, according to Norton.
Republicans mostly oppose D.C.’s statehood because the city largely votes for Democratic Party candidates.
The supporters of the bill state that the city’s population of 700,000 people are deprived of the right to vote for Congress, therefore denied equal voting rights.
On the other hand, a recent poll found that 64 percent of the U.S. population are against the idea of granting D.C. statehood, while only 29 percent are in favor of it.