H.Res. 1180

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1180 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1180

Recognizing the enduring cultural and historical significance of 
emancipation in the Nation's capital on the anniversary of President 
Abraham Lincoln's signing of the District of Columbia Compensated 
Emancipation Act, which established the ``first freed'' on April 16, 
1862, and celebrating passage of the District of Columbia statehood 
bill in the House of Representatives.

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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

April 15, 2026

Ms. Norton submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

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RESOLUTION

Recognizing the enduring cultural and historical significance of 
emancipation in the Nation's capital on the anniversary of President 
Abraham Lincoln's signing of the District of Columbia Compensated 
Emancipation Act, which established the ``first freed'' on April 16, 
1862, and celebrating passage of the District of Columbia statehood 
bill in the House of Representatives.

Whereas the District of Columbia has been a focal point of the Nation's complex 
racial history, which has included slavery, the Civil War, killings, 
segregation, and disenfranchisement, among other violations of civil and 
human rights;
Whereas, on April 16, 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham 
Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, 
which freed the approximately 3,100 enslaved individuals in the District 
of Columbia and authorized compensation to their former enslavers;
Whereas, on January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation 
Proclamation, which established a ``new birth of freedom'' by legally 
emancipating millions of enslaved individuals in the 10 States of the 
Confederacy not under Union control, freeing the majority of the 
Nation's enslaved individuals;
Whereas the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which 
reads ``Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a 
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, 
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their 
jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by 
appropriate legislation'', was adopted on December 6, 1865, and 
effectively outlawed slavery in the United States;
Whereas the enslavement of persons of African descent endured for more than two 
centuries in what is now the United States, including the District of 
Columbia;
Whereas, in 2005, District of Columbia Emancipation Day, commemorating April 16, 
the date of the signing of the District of Columbia Compensated 
Emancipation Act, was made a legal public holiday in the District of 
Columbia to be celebrated annually on April 16;
Whereas the residents of the District of Columbia pay more per capita in Federal 
taxes than the residents of any State;
Whereas the residents of the District of Columbia, who pay the full freight of 
Federal taxes, serve in the United States Armed Forces, are subject to 
all of the requirements of citizenship, and otherwise have long made 
contributions to the life, culture, and leadership of the United States, 
still are denied voting representation in the Congress and independence 
from congressional interference in local matters in violation of the 
Nation's founding principles of no taxation without representation and 
consent of the governed;
Whereas, on June 26, 2020, and April 22, 2021, the House of Representatives 
passed the Washington, DC Admission Act, the first and the second times 
in history, respectively, the DC statehood bill had been passed by 
either chamber of Congress;
Whereas H.R. 51, the Washington, DC Admission Act, has 206 cosponsors; and
Whereas S. 51, the Washington, DC Admission Act, has 43 cosponsors: Now, 
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) recognizes District of Columbia Emancipation Day, 
marking the anniversary of the end of slavery in the District 
of Columbia and symbolizing the aspirations of the residents of 
the District of Columbia for the same rights and freedoms 
afforded to residents of States; and
(2) calls on Congress to pass the Washington, DC Admission 
Act.
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