Clarification appended
The AU chapter for D.C. Statehood ratified its charter on Oct. 7, giving the group a defined set of goals.
Students for D.C. Statehood will advocate for equal Congressional representation and autonomy for the District’s budget in its ongoing mission of making D.C. a state, according to the new charter.
“There are more than 600,000 people living in D.C. right now who have no [voting] Congressional representation and no autonomous legislation or budget,” co-founder Josh Matfess said.
Matfess, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, said D.C. receives a disproportionate number of electoral votes given the size of its population.
“It’s essentially relegating the people of D.C. to the status of second-class citizens,” he said.
Matfess and SPA sophomore Anthony Szewczyk co-founded the organization last year, The Eagle previously reported.
“Every piece of legislation passed by the District Council undergoes review by Congress,” Matfess said. “This is a problem because the House of Representatives has [a] Republican majority, and so a lot of local laws that are supported by D.C. citizens are vetoed by Congress.”
The group plans to bring speakers such as D.C.’s shadow representative Nathan Bennett-Fleming to campus, Matfess said. The D.C. Council appoints one representative and two senators, which are considered “shadow” positions because they cannot vote and are not officially recognized by Congress.
One of the main obstacles that the organization faces is that AU students do not identify D.C. as their home yet, Creative Director Jack Szeltner, a sophomore in SPA, said.
“Students tend to get stuck in the ‘college bubble’ areas of D.C.,” he said. “They don’t really get immersed with the local population and fail to appreciate some of the challenges faced by D.C. residents.”
Clarification: D.C. has representation in Congress, but only through members with no voting privileges on the floor of House of Representatives or the Senate.
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