DC statehood hearing rescheduled to make room for Mueller testimony

The first House hearing on potentially granting statehood to the District of Columbia will be postponed after a hearing of two House committees involving former Special Counsel Robert Mueller was moved to the same day.

Washington D.C.’s non-voting delegate to Congress, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), wrote Saturday afternoon in a press release that the hearing on her bill would likely be pushed back until after Congress’s August recess.

{mosads}The bill which Norton introduced earlier this year would grant Washington, D.C. the full representation in the U.S. as the 51st state, granting voting power to Norton in the House as well as guaranteeing the district representation in the Senate.

“Our statehood hearing is essential to move our bill to passage, but it serves another important purpose as well,” Norton said Saturday. “This hearing will inform people of what most do not know – that the residents of their nation’s capital do not have full voting rights in the House and have no representation in the Senate.”

“We will use this postponement to nationalize our efforts, giving national attention to the disenfranchisement of D.C. residents and to continue to build support for the bill in the House, Senate and across the country,” she continued, adding that she herself had made the request for the House Oversight and Reform Committee to postpone the hearing.

Norton’s office said 213 voting members of the House have signed on as co-sponsors to the bill. If it passed the House this year, it would likely face an uphill battle in the GOP-controlled Senate, as Republicans have traditionally opposed D.C. statehood.