According to Fox news
The divided House Thursday passed legislation to make Washington, D.C., the 51st state and to grant its more than 700,000 residents full representation in Congress.
The strictly party-line vote in the House was 216 to 208, with all Republicans rejecting the statehood bill, dubbed H.R. 51. The legislation has support from President Biden but faces long odds of passing in the 50-50 split Senate.
Debate over statehood got particularly heated on the House floor Thursday when New York Democrat Rep. Mondaire Jones accused certain Republicans of being against D.C. statehood because the district was not White enough in their minds to qualify for self-rule.
Republicans, however, argued that because Washington, D.C.’s establishment is constitutionally based, any change to the district must come in the form of a constitutional amendment – not legislation from Congress. And the GOP panned statehood as a power grab by Democrats to expand the majority in the Senate by adding two more senators from a liberal enclave.
“Let’s be clear what H.R. 51 is all about: It’s about Democrats adding two new progressive U.S. senators to push a radical agenda championed by the Squad to reshape America into the socialist utopia they always talk about,” said Rep. James Comer, R-Ky.