WASHINGTON — The mayor of Washington D.C. enlisted the help of 51 veterans to kick off "DC Statehood Week" on Monday morning.
As part of the District's long-running push for statehood, Mayor Muriel Bowser said they will fly United States flags with 51 stars along Pennsylvania Avenue head of the house hearing on the topic this Thursday.
Bowser, the veterans and public officials have a DC statehood-themed bus they plan to ride down the road, which is lined with hundreds of the 51-star flags.
At the end of the parade, Bowser is slated to speak and push for Congress to grant the District's 702,000 residents full rights.
The first hearing for D.C. statehood is scheduled for Sept. 19.
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton announced the hearing will be at 10 a.m. in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.
It had originally been scheduled for July 24 but Norton said she asked to have it moved after Special Counsel Robert Mueller was scheduled to testify before two U.S. House committees on the same day.
Norton said in a release Monday her statehood bill, H.R. 51, has "record number of voting cosponsors" in the House.
A recent poll from Gallup found most Americans don't believe D.C. should become a state - in fact, 64 percent said they oppose it.
Here in the District, the majority of voters – 86 percent, according to the DC Statehood office -- appears to support statehood. In 2016, D.C. residents passed a referendum supporting statehood.
Every Democrat running for president in 2020 has come out in favor of making D.C. the nation’s 51st state, Politico reported.