Muriel Bowser, mayor of the District of Columbia, speaks during a press meeting in Havana, Cuba, on Feb. 22, 2016. (Photo: ERNESTO MASTRASCUSA, EPA) 
 
 WASHINGTON — The mayor of the District of Columbia reiterated Friday that the city should become the country’s 51st state, with a local vote proposed on the November ballot. 
 
 “We will not stop until we achieve full statehood,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said Friday at the Willard Hotel while recognizing Emancipation Day. 
 
 Nearly three in four residents say they are “very upset” the District has no voting representation on the floor of the House or Senate, with D.C. laws and budgets subject to congressional approval, according to a November poll by The Washington Post. 
 
 The District deserves a vote in Congress and full rights of citizenship, and the pathway there is statehood. pic.twitter.com/YC9GU4KIGK — Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) April 15, 2016 
 
 The frustration for D.C. residents is that Congress can change the City Council's budget or impose its own policy legislation on hot-button issues such as restrictions on guns or marijuana. 
 
 Bowser said she would work this summer to place the statehood proposal on the city's ballot. But a variety of previous efforts to gain statehood have failed, including local referendums. 
 
 This summer, we will propose legislation that will put statehood on the ballot in the 2016 election. #DCEmancipationDay — Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) April 15, 2016 
 
 The U.S. Constitution gave Congress exclusive legislative authority over D.C. as the seat of federal government. Proposals over the years to alter that arrangement have included giving the district statehood, defining the district as a state to give it seats in the House and Senate, or making it part of Maryland. 
 
 In 1978, Congress sent a constitutional amendment to the states to treat the district as though it were a state, according to the Congressional Research Service. But the amendment expired in 1985 after being ratified by only 16 states, rather than 38 needed for adoption. 
 
 A high-profile effort in 2009 sought to give D.C. and Utah each a seat in the House, raising the total from 435 seats to 437. This political compromise was expected to create one Democratic seat and one Republican seat, after a Utah dispute with the 2000 Census. The Senate approved the bill, but the House ignored it. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1SfknE8 

 
 
 Photo by Victoria Pickering. 
 
 This Emancipation Day, Mayor Muriel Bowser has a present for the city: a ballot initiative for D.C. statehood. 
 
 While the city commemorates the date when Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in the District of Columbia, it has become a de facto statehood holiday/protest. 
 
 “As we celebrate Emancipation Day, we honor the many champions who have fought for equality and civil rights throughout our history,” Bowser said in a statement. “Each year, we use this historic moment to renew our push for full democracy and statehood for the residents of the District of Columbia. We will not stop until we achieve full statehood.” 
 
 The mayor kicked off this year's events with a "Full Democracy Champions Breakfast," where she announced plans to propose legislation that would put statehood on the November ballot. 
 
 The District deserves a vote in Congress and full rights of citizenship, and the pathway there is statehood. pic.twitter.com/YC9GU4KIGK — Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) April 15, 2016 
 
 Direct votes have proven successful—both Initiative 71, the ballot initiative that proposed the legalization of marijuana, and the 2013 budget autonomy referendum overwhelmingly passed. But neither had a smooth path from there, thanks to the District's political limbo. Congress curbed the city's ability to regulate pot and it took three years for budget autonomy to wend its way through the court system (D.C.'s attorney general and CFO argued it violated federal law). 
 
 Despite a children song, raps, flag tattoos, national lobbying, a liberty pole, a PAC, and John Oliver clips, it seems unlikely that a Republican-controlled Congress would just let statehood slip on by. Still according to The Washington Post, Bowser has something of a plan: 
 
 Aides to Bowser said a broader push for statehood would follow a process known as the “Tennessee model.” When Tennessee was admitted to the union as the 16th state, it was a federal territory, much like the nation’s capital. Congress agreed to allow Tennessee to become a state without ratification by the existing states. Instead, it required a vote of residents in the territory to approve a state constitution and a pledge to form a republic-style government. Bowser’s administration has been working to update a constitution approved by D.C. voters in 1982 for just such a state. That petition, submitted by then-Mayor Marion Barry, was ignored by Congress. 
 
 The actual anniversary of Lincoln signing the DC Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862 is on the 16th, but because it falls on Saturday this year, the legal holiday is observed today—causing the IRS to push back the filing deadline for taxes to April 18. The confluence of Tax Day and Emancipation Day also pushed back filing deadlines in years past, to April 17, 2007 and April 18, 2011. 
 
 Still most other highlights of Emancipation Day festivities are tomorrow, including a parade (from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Pennsylvania Avenue), a "truck touch" (kids can come peer into municipal vehicles at 1:30 p.m. on the 1300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue), a concert (starting at 2:45 p.m. in Freedom Plaza), and fireworks (around 9 p.m.) More events can be found here. 
 
 

 In a spirited speech on April 15, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called for a vote on statehood for the District of Columbia. (DCN) 
 
 In a spirited speech on April 15, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called for a vote on statehood for the District of Columbia. (DCN) 
 
 D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser on Friday called for a citywide vote in November on making the nation’s capital the 51st state, resurrecting a decades-old plan to thrust the issue before Congress and raise awareness across the country about District residents’ lack of full citizenship. 
 
 “I propose we take another bold step toward democracy in the District of Columbia,” Bowser (D) said at a breakfast attracting hundreds of city residents, Democratic members of Congress and civil rights leaders marking the 154th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation of slaves in the nation’s capital. 
 
 “It’s going to require that we send a bold message to the Congress and the rest of the country that we demand not only a vote in the House of Representatives,” she said. “We demand two senators — the full rights of citizenship in this great nation.” 
 
 The mayor’s announcement appeared poised to ratchet up tension between the District’s Democratic majority and its federal overseers in a Republican-controlled Congress. 
 
 [D.C. is about to declare it’s independence — from Congress] 
 
 The Washington Post’s Aaron Davis explains why D.C. is fighting Congress to control its own budget and why Congress says that’s a violation of the Constitution. (Ashleigh Joplin/The Washington Post) 
 
 The District is already challenging Congress over its authority to approve local city spending. This year, for the first time, Bowser and the D.C. Council plan to enact a local spending plan — totaling $13 billion — without congressional appropriation of those funds. Instead, the city will begin spending its money unless federal lawmakers act to stop it. 
 
 While some conservatives have expressed support for giving the District more control of its local tax dollars, Republicans have universally said statehood remains a non-starter. Statehood would give the District — which has never elected anyone other than a Democrat to citywide office in an open election — two Senate seats that could tip the balance of power in the chamber for years to come. 
 
 “I’m a big one for local control” of tax dollars, said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the subcommittee that handles D.C. affairs. But “when it becomes a slippery slope in an effort to give de facto statehood, that is not something that is going to be met with the same kind of genteel receptivity.” 
 
 Bowser left little doubt Friday that she sees the city’s fight for fiscal independence as a steppingstone to statehood. She announced her plan for a vote in November saying it will be critical to seize on whatever national attention and exposure might come from the city’s fiscal battle with Congress to make the larger case for statehood. And doing so in a presidential election year will put the issue front and center for the next president and Congress, she said. 
 
 The mayor’s administration is still in discussions with D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) about how that would work. 
 
 But largely, Bowser plans a push for statehood that would follow a process known as the “Tennessee model.” When Tennessee applied to become the 16th state, it was the first federal territory to do so, and Congress allowed for an abbreviated path to statehood. 
 
 Residents of the would-be state voted to ratify a constitution and pledged to begin a republic form of government. Congress then admitted Tennessee into the union in 1796 without requiring ratification by the existing states. 
 
 D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser on Friday calls for a citywide vote to petition Congress for D.C. statehood, saying city residents’ Zip codes should not determine if they have representation. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) 
 
 In the early 1980s, the District attempted the same path. Then-Mayor Marion Barry petitioned Congress for statehood, but the request was largely ignored. 
 
 Bowser’s administration has begun the work of updating the constitution city voters ratified in 1982 for that effort, as well as a subsequent version the D.C. Council drafted in 1987. 
 
 But updating the constitution could be tricky. The 58-page document approved by voters is filled with numerous provisions that lost some support from even Barry during the last effort. 
 
 For example, the constitution includes a provision that requires the new state to provide jobs or adequate incomes to all city residents. It also would allow firefighters and police the right to strike. The document envisions a governor, lieutenant governor, 40-member unicameral legislature and locally controlled two-tier court system. 
 
 To petition for statehood, constitutional scholars have also advised the Bowser administration that voters should also be asked whether to repeal the 23rd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave D.C. residents the right to vote for president but not members of Congress. 
 
 In an interview, Bowser said she was confident that the city could place the statehood question on November’s ballot but was unsure whether a new state constitution would be ready by then. 
 
 The important part is “we’re changing the starting point for the statehood conversation,” Bowser said. 
 
 “Instead of waiting for congressional action, we want the people of the District of Columbia to speak,” she said. “We want to demonstrate, by a vote of the people, support for statehood in the District of Columbia.” 
 
 As Bowser spoke, nearly 200 statehood advocates got a head start, holding a demonstration and march on the Capitol, where they chanted “What do we want? Statehood! When do we want it? Now!” 
 
 Michael Stanisich brought his two sons, Estin, 9 and Aiden, 7. 
 
 “I have spent the bulk of my career in international development, working with marginalized and disenfranchised communities around the world and, well, there’s no place like home. It’s kind of ironic,” Stanisich said. “At home, we can’t get it done. . . . I do think, maybe, if it was 95 percent Republicans, maybe the tables would be turned.” 
 
 Speaking at the breakfast, Bowser said there is special injustice in holding back rights for the District because of politics. 
 
 “Some in Congress say . . . the reason why D.C. residents can’t have full access to the franchise is because of too many Democrats,” Bowser said. “Can you believe that? Do you think access to democracy is a Democratic or Republican issue? No, it’s an American issue.” 
 
 Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.
– Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser announced plans for a citywide vote in November to make DC the country's 51st state, the Washington Post reports. “We will not stop until we achieve full statehood,” USA Today quotes Bowser as saying Friday. The mayor argues that DC residents' "rights are stolen" because of the zip code where they live. DC has no representation in Congress, yet Congress has final control over the city's budget and recently overruled the city on gun control and marijuana legalization. A poll in November found that nearly 75% of DC residents are "very upset" about having no voice in the national government. Bowser points out they have no vote over how their taxes are spent, who should sit on the Supreme Court, and more. Muriel wants to follow the same process Tennessee used to move from a federal territory to the country's 16th state. Under that process, DC residents would approve a state constitution, among other things, and Congress would vote on it. However, DCist reports it's unlikely a Republican-led Congress would approve statehood for DC. “Some in Congress say … the reason why DC residents can’t have full access to the franchise is because of too many Democrats,” the Post quotes Bowser as saying. “Do you think access to democracy is a Democratic or Republican issue? No, it’s an American issue.” DC residents previously voted for statehood in 1982, but they were ignored by Congress. Congress' control of DC comes directly from the US Constitution.