Welcoming Our 51st State?

 

Photo courtesy of the Hawaii State Archives

What to do about America's unrepresented Citizens

August 21st 1959 is a special date in American history. That was the last time the United States added a new state. Going on 60 years ago this is the longest we’ve ever gone without adding a new state to the union. That streak could come to an end though. On Jun 26th the House of Representatives passed a law to make the District of Columbia the 51st state. In the short term this is more symbolic than substantive since they were fully aware the Senate won’t take up the measure. However, that could change if the Senate flips to the Democrats in November which seem likely based on recent polling. The governance of the D.C. has been murky since the district was first formed. The issue of how to determine the representation for people who live there is a fundamental question for America.

These questions don’t end with the D.C. though. The United States also has five unincorporated territories with 3.7 million residents that likewise exist in a legal limbo. Apathy has guided our policy towards these Americans who aren’t fully represented under the Constitution for decades. Arguably we have greater issues to deal with right now, but when hasn’t that been the case? Perhaps this is finally the time to look at these underrepresented people and start thinking through how or if they fit into America’s democratic system.

The decision of where to put the national capital was one of the first questions America faced after the Revolution. New York was the initial capital, but it was moved to Philadelphia in 1790. The newly ratified Constitution allowed for the creation of a federal district to serve as the capital, but didn’t specify a location. After intense negotiation the northern states agreed to locate the District of Columbia in the south on the Potomac River. The final location was a 100 square mile site near George Washington’s Mount Vernon. The new district straddled the river with about two-thirds of it on the Maryland side and one-third on the Virginia side. Later disappointed Virginia businessmen who felt the Virginia side was being neglected convinced the state to take back it’s portion. Interestingly it’s not clear if this was actually legal, but no one challenged it so that portion reverted to Virginia.

The purpose of the federal district was to remove the capital from being under the direct influence of a single state. The Constitution states that Congress can make laws concerning the federal district but doesn’t go into any more detail. How to govern and represent the people who live there was a topic for Congress to determine later. The status of Washingtonians has evolved over time. They first gained the right to vote in Presidential elections in 1964. This law allotted the district 3 Electoral College votes, equal to the smallest state. The 1973 District of Columbia Home Rule Act set up a mayor-city council government to handle city administration. However, Congress can overrule local laws enacted by this government. As a result controversial measures by the D.C. government involving reproductive rights, gun control, marijuana, marriage equality and abortion have become proxy wars in Congress.

The primary deficiency in the representation for Washingtonians is their lack of a voice in Congress. Given their local government is subject to Congressional review this failing is particularly glaring. Statehood would fix this problem by giving them two Senators and one Congressional Representative. Washington does have a non-voting representative, however without a vote this is a symbolic gesture that carries no weight. If statehood becomes a reality, D.C.’s voice in Presidential elections would remain three Electoral votes. It’s not clear how that would affect local governance.

D.C. statehood is largely a partisan issue because their three members of Congress would be a near lock for the Democratic party. Even if the Democrats take the Senate it’s probably unlikely that it could overcome an almost certain Republican filibuster. Given that I’m a Democrat, it might surprise some to hear I think D.C. statehood is ridiculous. I say this for a couple of reasons. With a population of 705,000 it has more people than several states, but it’s only 68 sq. miles. It’s less than 6% the size of Rhode Island. Would it have a governor and a mayor overseeing the exact same area. I suppose the logistics of local/state government could be worked out. The more fundamental problem, statehood is directly at odds with why the Founding Fathers created the District to begin with. The Federal capital is to be free of state political whims. The D.C. home rule act was a compromise that gave local residents a say in local government while maintaining the principle of a Federal district.

D.C. statehood is problematic, but there is a legitimate problem of the residents not having real Congressional representation. My solution to this problem is to make D.C. a special Congressional appendage of Maryland. Maryland and the District of Columbia would share Congressional representation but remain otherwise separate. Washingtonians would be eligible to vote for Maryland’s Senators and D.C. would become its own Congressional district. The 1964 law giving D.C. its own Electoral College votes and the 1973 Home Rule Act would be unaffected.

There would still be political considerations to overcome, but they should be far less than statehood. Maryland tends to be a pretty safe Democratic state. Adding mostly Democratic D.C. wouldn’t shift the Congressional balance of power in any meaningful way. Both of Maryland’s Senators are Democrats. Making Washington’s current non-voting Representative into a voting Congressman would be the only real change. The Constitution gives Congress the exclusive power to legislate for the District. Because of this Congress can accomplish this through legislation rather than requiring a Constitutional Amendment.

So that’s that, except not really. In addition to the 700k Washingtonians that lack representation, there are an additional 3.7 million in a similar status. I’m talking about America’s five populated unincorporated territories of American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. These five territories exist in a weird legal gray area but are part of the United States. In many respects they are very similar to D.C. Legally they are just as much a part of America as Florida, Texas or California. Also like D.C. they aren’t incorporated as a state, operate with limited self-rule with federal oversight, and lack Federal representation. However, because they are more distant and less integrated into the rest of the country we oxen treat them like colonies rather than a part of America.

Puerto Rico is the most obvious target for potential statehood. Geographically much closer to the mainland than Hawaii and with a population of 3.3 million it’s easily large enough to be a legitimate state. Culturally Puerto Rico is highly integrated with the rest of the country as well. In 2017 97% of Puerto Ricans voted for statehood, so the desire is clearly there on their end. There isn’t any objective barrier to adding them as our 51st state. So why hasn’t it happened? Primarily politics again. Politically Puerto Rico would likely be a Democratic Party gain in Congress. There’s also an economic concern with the territory being deeply in debt. Long term though, I think it’s hard to predict how Puerto Rico would vote politically. Florida is the state with the most in common with Puerto Rico and they’ve been trending Republican in recent years. Likewise it seems likely that Puerto Rico could be a long term financial asset after being fully incorporated as a state.

So, it’s a no go on D.C. statehood, but some modification to their current status to allow Congressional representation. For Puerto Rico it’s full steam ahead, let’s start sewing another star on the flag. But what about the other four unincorporated territories? Each would be by far the smallest state in terms of both population and area. Also adding four new states, five including Puerto Rico, would dramatically alter the composition of Congress. Because of this the likelihood that we’re going to see the state of American Samoa is basically zilch. But if you haven’t noticed I’m strongly of the mind that every American needs representation in the Federal Government. What to do?

I think there’s a number of solutions but I’m going with the simplest. For American Samoa, Northern Mariana and Guam, add them to Hawaii. Of course there would be logistical challenges with this. The biggest issue would simply be the vast distances between these territories. These problems would have been insurmountable a century ago. However, in today’s era of instant communications, video conferencing and air travel I think it could work. These three territories have a combined population of only about 270,000 so they probably wouldn’t affect Hawaii’s representation. This should reduce the political objections. How would these territories and Hawaii feel about this? Not sure, but it seems likely to be mutually beneficial so it might be plausible. Similarly, the U.S. Virgin Islands could be included in the new Puerto Rican state. In this case the two islands are only 65 miles apart so the mechanics of working it out are a lot simpler.

Easy peasy, give D.C. a Congressional representative, increase Hawaii a little and create the state of Puerto Rico, done. Everyone gets representation and we eliminate these legal gray areas where people are Americans, but only kind of. There are all kinds of political and cultural issues that we will need to overcome to make this happen. This is a starting point, but there would still be a lot of details to work out. The biggest obstacle is apathy. Although this makes sense, there’s not an urgent crisis driving Congress to make this happen. I think most Americans know the current situation isn’t right, it’s just not a priority. Keep in mind, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor they attacked a territory, not a state. Collectively we considered it an attack on America, even if statehood had to wait fifteen more years. It’s time to bring the rest of our fellow Americans into the fold and make this happen.