Posted on 06/22/2021 3:00:04 PM PDT by caww
the issue continues to be dead in the water.
Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee who helped organize the hearing, simply said that if Washington residents want full representation in the House and the Senate, Maryland should take back part of the district.
“A better option, in my view, would be to retrocede a large portion of the district to Maryland. Retrocession is the preferable way to provide D.C. residents with voting representation in both chambers of Congress,” Portman’s suggestion has been offered before, largely because the federal city was created from land offered up by Maryland.
He gave a history lesson on the swap. “When Maryland authorized the cession of nearly 60 miles of its territory to the federal government for the creation of the District of Columbia in 1788, it did so for the purpose that ‘Congress may fix upon and accept [the land] for the seat of government.’ When Congress formally accepted the land from Maryland by legislative act in 1790, we explained that the land was ‘hereby accepted for the permanent seat of the government of the United States.’ Maryland gave up its land, and we accepted it so that we could create an independent federal governmental district. Making D.C. into a separate state violates the solemn compact we made over 200 years ago with Maryland, as well,” he said.
What’s more, he said, a city might be a bit small for a state.
“We’d be creating a state that by acreage comprises less than 6% of the next smallest state, Rhode Island,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
just tack it onto PG county. Won’t change a thing...
No need to give it back, simply change the residents of DC to the residents of Maryland.
Ceding the District back to MD has a big problem. The 23rd Amendment grants 3 Electoral Votes to the ‘district that constitutes the seat of government’. It doesn’t name the district involved, so if nearly all of DC is given back to MD, what ever is left will still have 3 E.V.s It is also a problem for making D.C. into a state.
NOOOO!!!
We don’t want it!!!!
Make Taiwan our 51st state!
If Dems were 100% sincere about their “no taxation” shtick this would work, but everyone knows it’s about two Democratic Senators, and nothing more.
Stick it where the sun don’t shine, Buttman!
The “Seat of Government” should consist of Federal Government Buildings, Monuments and Museums.
The only Residents should occupy the White House and even them those same Residents should still Vote in the State they came from or Vote Absentee.
No Residents, no Congressional Representation and no EV’s, period. Office Buildings, Monuments and Museums are not People.
The federal district (DC) once included parts of Falls Church, Alexandria city and Alexandria county and were returned to Virginia from DC. Alexandria county was renamed Arlington county upon it’s return to avoid confusion.
Historical precedent should follow for the lands ceded by Maryland.
“””Ceding the District back to MD has a big problem. The 23rd Amendment grants 3 Electoral Votes to the ‘district that constitutes the seat of government’. It doesn’t name the district involved, so if nearly all of DC is given back to MD, what ever is left will still have 3 E.V.s It is also a problem for making D.C. into a state.”””
I have no problem repealing the 23rd amendment.
“The “Seat of Government” should consist of Federal Government Buildings, Monuments and Museums.
The only Residents should occupy the White House and even them those same Residents should still Vote in the State they came from or Vote Absentee.
But this evades the Constitutional purpose of the District. The Founders wanted the Federal government to be able to function completely independently of any state. Imagine a Federal government at the mercy of a politically hostile state government.
Imagine that the capital was still N.Y. with its current mayor, governor, attorney general, etc. and Trump was still President. Think of the turmoil such a situation could, would create.
If the residents of the District crave Senators and Representatives, it will be much easier to have them move a few miles to VA or MD then to go through the legal and Constitutional gymnastics of either making the District a state or retroceding most of it to MD.
Some residents pay income tax. Give them the same deal that Puerto Rico has. You don’t have to pay income tax, but you’ll still receive benefits.
agreed. and Maryland does NOT get three more electoral votes.
“I have no problem repealing the 23rd amendment.”
This would have the added benefit of making Eleanor Holmes Norton unemployed.
ML/NJ
Give dc back to china.
What is wrong with it as things are right now that you are going to fix by changing it. Things are the way they are because they got that way with the gazillion little adjustments that sort of make it work. Top down whole-sale reconstitution never works unless you are utterly bankrupt, because you think you know how to fix it but you don’t because you don’t understand all the things that a couple of million people living this problem do to ameliorate problems in the first place.
And by the way, DC statutory law and case law is rather divergent from Maryland law these days. Our rules and procedures are pretty much federal because we are after all a federal district as the Constitution says.
One Tactical Nuke would solve all the issues, as long as everyone was in town at the time.
Unfortunately, that would mean Kiefer Sutherland would be running the show.
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