Bill Text: HI SCR34 | 2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: District of Columbia; Statehood; Budget Autonomy; Legislative Autonomy

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 12-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2016-04-07 - Referred to VMI, FIN, referral sheet 46 [SCR34 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2016-SCR34-Introduced.html

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THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	34
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

urging the united states congress to support legislation granting budget autonomy, legislative autonomy, and statehood to the district of columbia.

 

 

     WHEREAS, the people living on the land that would eventually be designated as the District of Columbia were provided the right to vote for representation in Congress when the United States Constitution was ratified in 1788; and

 

     WHEREAS, the passage of the Organic Act of 1801 placed the District of Columbia under the exclusive authority of the United States Congress and abolished residents' right to vote for members of Congress and the President and Vice President of the United States; and

 

     WHEREAS, residents of the District of Columbia were granted the right to vote for the President and Vice President through passage of the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1961; and

 

     WHEREAS, according to the 2010 census, the District of Columbia has 601,723 residents, which is comparable to the populations of Wyoming (563,626), Vermont (625,741), North Dakota (672,591), and Alaska (710,231); and

 

     WHEREAS, District of Columbia residents share all the responsibilities of citizenship, including paying federal taxes, serving on federal juries, and defending the United States as members of the United States Armed Services in every war since the War for Independence, yet they are denied full representation in Congress; and

 

     WHEREAS, the residents of the District of Columbia have endorsed Statehood for the District of Columbia, and passed a District-wide referendum on budget autonomy; and

 

     WHEREAS, no other democratic nation denies the right of self-government, including participation in its national legislature, to the residents of its capital; and

 

     WHEREAS, the United States Congress has repeatedly interfered with the District of Columbia's limited self-government by enacting laws that affect the District of Columbia's expenditure of its locally raised tax revenue, including barring the usage of locally raised revenue, thus violating the fundamental principle that states and local governments are best suited to enact legislation that represents the will of its citizens; and

 

     WHEREAS, although the District of Columbia has passed a balanced budget in a timely manner in each of the last twenty years, it still faces the possibility of being shut down yearly because of Congressional deliberations over the federal budget; and

 

     WHEREAS, legislation is often introduced, but rarely considered, in the United States Congress that would provide for greater representation and autonomy for the residents of the District of Columbia; and

 

     WHEREAS, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has called upon the United States Congress to address the District of Columbia's lack of political equality, and the Organization of American States has declared the disenfranchisement of the District of Columbia residents a violation of its charter agreement, to which the United States is a signatory; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2016, the House of Representatives concurring, that members of the United States Congress are urged to enact federal legislation or propose a constitutional amendment granting budget autonomy, legislative autonomy, and statehood to the District of Columbia; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the District of Columbia's congressional delegate, the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, and the presiding officers of each legislative body in each state.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

District of Columbia; Statehood; Budget Autonomy; Legislative Autonomy