Sonali Kolhatkar speaks with Jamal Holtz about Washington D.C.'s potential statehood.

The House Oversight Committee recently held a hearing on a bill that would confer statehood on Washington D.C. Currently, the District of Columbia is a federally run district under the jurisdiction of Congress.

If admitted as the nation’s 51st state, it would become Douglass Commonwealth, named for the famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, symbolizing the fact that the city’s residents are majority African American and yet have limited democratic rights.

The bill had once before passed the House but went on to land in the legislative graveyard that Republicans turned the Senate into. Now 44 out of 50 Democratic Senators support the new Senate version of the bill.

Jamal Holtz, lead organizer with the 51 for 51 statehood campaign, fighting on behalf of 700,000+ residents to make DC the 51st state.

Rising Up with Sonali is a radio and television show that brings progressive news coverage rooted in gender and racial justice to a wide audience.

Rising Up With Sonali was built on the foundation of Sonali Kolhatkar's earlier show, Uprising, which became the longest-running drive-time radio show on KPFK in Los Angeles hosted by a woman.

RUS airs on Free Speech TV every weekday.

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