Ranking Member Hoyer Opening Remarks at FSGG Hearing for District of Columbia Fiscal Year 2025 Budget

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05), Ranking Member of the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Appropriations Subcommittee, delivered opening remarks at the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Hearing for the District of Columbia. Below is a transcript of his remarks and a link to the video:

Click here to watch a full video of his remarks.

"Thank you, Chairman. I want to recognize and welcome to our committee, the governor of the District of Columbia, the President of their unicameral legislature, Mr. Mendelson, and - what we would call in our state - the comptroller, with whom I had the opportunity to meet just recently. By all accounts, the District of Columbia is in good shape and doing well. The city's finances are in good order, would that the country were in a similar situation. Its economic - its economy continues to recover and grow, and workers have gradually returned to the office, although - as the chairman has indicated - not as rapidly as I think the city would like and not as rapidly as perhaps all of us would like.

"Crime is decreasing, contrary to some allegations. Its population is increasing - a very good indicator of the health of a city, particularly when we see so many cities having declining populations. We owe these encouraging trends in no small part to the guidance of its leaders, especially those of us, Mr. Chairman, before us today. Their accomplishments are even more impressive in light of the efforts of some in the Congress to interfere with D.C. Home Rule, which posited that democracy is critically important, and that the District of Columbia - as it relates to its city and its operations, should have and the Congress adopted this, the President signed the premise - that they ought to have home rule, and not be simply have the Congress as an overseer.

"This has been a Congress, a historic Congress in terms of meddling in D.C.'s affairs. Members have tried to insert themselves in the governance of this great city, wading into local issues that ought to stay local, subject to the citizens of the District of Columbia's judgment, from a concealed carry restriction on WMATA, to the right to turn on red, and everything in between. Washingtonians know how to govern themselves. They don't need members from thousands of miles away to weigh in on the specifics of how they run their city or to overrule what residents of D.C. want for themselves. Protecting Home Rule is absolutely vital to D.C.'s continued success.

"And as a Maryland Member, I can tell you just how crucial D.C.'s success is to the region's success. It is the heart of our region. I believe that the best way to endure, ensure D.C.'s vitality is to grant them statehood. We passed that through the Congress of the United States in the 117th Congress, so that D.C.'s 700,000 citizens - larger than the state of Wyoming - who now lack the proper representation in Congress, runs against everything our Constitution stands for.

"One man, one vote - except if you move from Maryland into the District of Columbia, or move from Virginia into the District of Columbia, or move from Ohio into the District of Columbia, or move from any of our states into the District of Columbia, when then - certainly the founders did not intend this - lose their vote as an American citizen in large part.

"Our framers did not intend for Americans to be without representation in the Congress of the United States. Considering that D.C. would be the state with the highest proportion of black residents in the nation, the lack of statehood also has disturbing implications for voting rights and equality in our country.

"I am eager to hear from our witnesses about the progress their city has made in spite of these obstacles. Again, I welcome all three of you representatives of a city that is my favorite city. Now, I live in the suburbs, but I believe Washington, a unique city, a capital city, a designed city, is as beautiful and functional a capital as we have in the world. So I welcome all three of you here representing that city. Thank you, Mr. Chairman."