Schumer just said he'd be "happy to make DC and Puerto Rico states if they vote for it."

[Renew Deal]

He said that DC already did. Puerto Rico voted for it too. Does Schumer not know this?

[OrlandoDem2]

1. The last statehood vote in PR only had 22% turnout.

Not a great sampling.

[Blue_true]

5. Because people there knew nothing would happen.

If they knew that they had two choices, full statehood immediately or become an independent nation, my belief is they would choose full statehood.

[Renew Deal]

9. 97% for statehood

1.5% Independence

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Puerto_Rican_status_referendum

[Lucinda]

2. ❤️ ✿❧🌿❧✿ ❤️

[Blue_true]

3. I would like to see us have no more territories.

We should give each territory’s people a vote with two choices, become an independent nation, or become a full-fledged state in the United States of America.

[Renew Deal]

8. What if they want to remain territories?

[Blue_true]

10. What is the benefit of that? They have no true representation, no

revenue sharing like the red states get. Being a territory is a mostly empty plate, IMO.

The only place that I would not want to become a state, and this will piss off some here, is DC, because of the very special and very unique status it holds as the federal government nexus, the glue that holds all the states together. I would like to see the federal government have more of a collaborative relationship with DC, instead of a domineering one.

[Renew Deal]

13. I was indifferent about DC statehood prior to this year.

Because I saw it as more of a local issue. But the abusive tactics were too much. The federal government has a right to defend themselves, but the tactics used such as closing residential neighborhoods, unmarked thugs, etc. were too much.

[Blue_true]

14. We have a thug in the White House.

That is why racists are emboldened and other ills like having police attack peacefully protesting citizens. We must never let a person like Trump win office ever again, and we should get rid of his republican collaborators. Having said that, DC has a special and unique status in the country, it is the place that all of the nation’s state capitols pivot around. I want it having more self rule, but that can stop short of it becoming a state.

[Hekate]

4. Do you not know that Schumer can't do this by himself? Schumer knows.

I wonder if what he’s saying is that the territory’s residents don’t just do a “one and done” vote on statehood, but periodically have to raise it and ratify it again.

[Blue_true]

6. What was the procedure used for states like Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii? nt

[Renew Deal]

12. There have been 5 previous votes

Not all supportive, but the last few are. There's another one this year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Puerto_Rican_status_referendum

[Silent3]

7. Until I checked just now, I wrongly thought it was almost as hard as passing an amendment...

...to the Constitution to add a new state, imagining that more than a majority of other states had to sign on to letting a new state into the union.

Wrong!

Apparently, it's much easier. It simply has to be approved by Congress after the new states-to-be take some preliminary steps, like drafting a state constitution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admission_to_the_Union

Wow! Better representation for Democrats in the House and the Senate could happen fairly quickly then, if DC and Puerto Rico are interested.

[Blue_true]

11. That is what I thought that I remembered. The House and Senate vote a state in,

there is no super-majority of states ratifying a constitutional amendment.