D.C. was intentionally classified as a territory in virus-aid bill, lawmakers say

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

D.C. was intentionally classified as a territory in virus-aid bill, lawmakers say

By Jenna Portnoy and Fenit Nirappil
March 26, 2020 at 3:30 p.m. EDT

Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Thursday that the coronavirus relief package expected to pass the House of Representatives on Friday deliberately classified the District as a territory instead of a state, which means the city will get less than half of the funding it was expecting.

Van Hollen (D-Md.) said he doesn’t know how the District got lumped in with five U.S. territories — the city is almost always treated like a full-fledged state by the federal government when it comes to grants, highway funding, education dollars and food assistance. He said he would try to ensure the District receives the money it believes it was due retroactively, as well as in a future relief package.

“I was enraged by the fact that the District of Columbia was going to be shortchanged,” Van Hollen said in an interview. “I immediately talked to Senator [Charles E.] Schumer about it and was told that the Republicans had insisted on the formula the way it was in the bill.”

Asked why the District is not treated like a state in the bill, a spokesman for Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said: “Because Washington, D.C., is not a state. One can debate whether or not it should be, but that’s a separate discussion.”

The spokesman, Michael Zona, noted that although some Democratic senators objected to the D.C. funding formula, the 600-page relief bill passed the Senate unanimously.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-was-intentionally-classified-as-a-territory-in-virus-aid-bill-lawmakers-say/2020/03/26/4b8c4ba8-6f74-11ea-b148-e4ce3fbd85b5_story.html

[bluedotinBR]

1. D.C. should be a state

it's population exceeds that of both Wyoming and Vermont

[jimfields33]

4. Probably should be but I think at the beginning they wanted it separate

Due to the incredible power it holds since it the heart of the federal government.

[Igel]

5. Both the seat of government.

So that no state holds the federal government hostage.

If you live in DC as a legislator or prez/VP you don't live in another state.

And states donated the land for DC. It wasn't donated as part of a secession movement to become another state. That state didn't set up another state that would dilute that state's political power. (Now it's not state power that's the issue for many who have risen above such tribal constructs. No, now it's the power of the party, which doesn't define just location and resources, but morality and raw power. Doesn't strike me as a postive development.)

Easy way if you don't like it being separate, return it. There's precedent: DC used to be square, but one part was returned to its donor state. Return the remaining part. Bam. People have full representation.

[Girard442]

2. But, y'know, it's full of *those* people, like Puerto Rico.

[mercuryblues]

3. Talk about shitting where you eat