The Undergraduate Senate voted to support Congressional voting rights for D.C. at their March 4 meeting.
Student Government Sen. At-Large Joe Wisniewski proposed the resolution after School of Public Affairs freshman Josh Matfess, the president of the AU student group Students for D.C. Statehood, approached Matfess looking for support of D.C. voting rights.
“I’m simply trying to give an on-campus organization the tools they need to spread their message, to spread it to the student body and, more importantly, spread it to the Board of Trustees to get their support,” Wisniewski said.
Class of 2012 Sen. and D.C. native Nicholas Anders was one of the 16 senators to support the resolution.
“Imagine if growing up in Texas, California, wherever you grew up, throughout life, every law that your town passed literally had to be approved by the federal government,” Anders said. “They’ve never had a voice in the federal government to have any input at representing them. Imagine that.”
Kogod School of Business Sen. Al Robinson said historical precedent indicates that D.C. was never meant to be a state. Robinson voted against the resolution.
Some senators were also wary that the addition of two new senators to the U.S. Senate would upset the balance of political parties.
“If you’re going to create two whole new senators, that is a massive deal at the federal level,” said Class of 2012 Sen. Roger Deming. “The amount of power a single senator has over control of not just policy in different areas, but also national policy, is immense. So I’m always kind of hesitant that we want to go down this route because the influence they have over other national policies by virulent fact that the capital resides within their borders.”
The resolution passed by a vote of 16-4-1.
hmongilio@theeagleonline.com
