As stated in previous letters, the District of Columbia should not be admitted as a state into the Union due to its special status as a federal district and the nation’s capital, but its residents should receive representation in the House of Representatives with the elevation of its non-voting delegate into a full voting representative since it is essentially a congressional district without representation.
On the Senate side, I believe that it should receive representation but only under the following conditions. The U.S. Senate should first be expanded with the restoration of pre-17th Amendment Senators who were elected by the state legislatures from 1789 to 1913. Such an action would further strengthen our states and our system of federalism.
This would also in effect create two chambers in the Senate, one based on population, the other based on legislatures and status as a state as the Founders originally intended. Each state would receive four senators, two in the Upper Senate chamber from the legislatures and two in the Lower Senate chamber elected by the people as they currently are now.
The Senate itself would double in size from 100 to 200 in number. The District of Columbia, which currently has three electoral votes because of the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution. Which is based on what it would receive in representation in Congress if it were a state should be permanently fixed at the current three electoral votes due to its status as the nation’s capital. Which would give it one representative in the House of Representatives and that the two Senators that it would receive should be split between both chambers giving it only half the advantage of a state.
My next letter on Senate expansion will go further into how the Upper and Lower Senate chamber would work.
