Multiple Democratic senators urged Congress to allocate more money to Washington because they believe the district was shorted by the $2.2 trillion coronavirus economic relief package.
While states with fewer people were allocated at least $1.25 billion by the recent legislation, Washington, D.C., was granted less than half as much money to combat the coronavirus because it was deemed a territory. In a letter sent on Wednesday, Sens. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Tom Carper of Delaware urged congressional leadership to consider sending more cash to the nation’s capital.
“Because the CARES Act did not follow the precedent of treating the District as a state for the purposes of federal funding, the District will be shortchanged more than $700 million,” the senators wrote. “Regardless of one’s views on D.C. Statehood, it is shameful and unprecedented to change the District’s treatment in a bill to provide support for emergency response.”
They continued, “Controlling the spread of COVID-19 is a shared priority of all the states, and drastically underfunding an urban area that is closely connected to its surrounding states and the northeast corridor is shortsighted and inexcusable.”
The senators noted that the district has a larger population than both Wyoming and Vermont and that its residents pay more in federal taxes than 22 states. Washington, D.C., was granted $500 million in the aid package, $750 million less than what Wyoming and Vermont received.
“The District of Columbia does not have representation in the Senate, but it does have support,” the senators wrote. “We urge you to work quickly to address this issue with new emergency appropriations to ensure that our nation’s capital has the resources it needs to respond to this national emergency.”
As of Wednesday, Washington, D.C., had 586 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 11 related deaths. Neighboring Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan warned that the area surrounding the nation’s capital could start “looking a lot more like New York.”
