WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia should become part of Maryland rather than a new state if it wants to ensure congressional representation for its residents, said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Collins weighed in Sunday on the issue of statehood after the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill in April that would make the district the 51st state.
“Washington, D.C., is a city; it’s not a state,” Collins said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Now, there is a way to ensure that the residents of D.C. have voting representation in Congress, and that is for D.C. to become part of Maryland, just as parts of D.C. became parts of Virginia many years ago.” “I think that’s a good way for us to approach this issue,” she said. “There are also constitutional issues to be dealt with.” The House bill faces opposition from Republicans in the Senate. Washington, D.C., with about 693,000 residents, votes overwhelmingly for Democrats. It has one nonvoting representative in Congress, even though its residents pay federal taxes and cast votes in the presidential election.
If the District of Columbia were to become part of Maryland, then the state would gain enough population to pick up an extra House district, and residents could be represented in the Senate by Maryland’s senators, Collins suggested.