Halfway through an April markup on the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, Rep. Frederick B. Keller (R-Pa.) appeared on the Zoom screen with a practical question:
How would D.C. pay for statehood?
“Democrats say the city is now financially self-sufficient. But the numbers do not add up,” Keller said, referring to the hundreds of millions of dollars the federal government spends each year on the city’s court system and education programs.
In congressional hearings, D.C. officials have provided scant detail on how they would absorb those costs, instead remaining more focused on the moral argument that 700,000 people should not be denied representation.
