Work Done

With most big issues still in committee rooms, the House and the Senate last week managed to pass one major bill apiece:

The House:

P: Passed (274-138) a bill to make Hawaii the 49th state. A group of Democrats tried but failed to block statehood for Hawaii (pop. 499,800) until Alaska (pop. 128,650) also becomes a state. This is the third Hawaiian statehood bill passed by the House in six years; both previous bills died in the Senate. The new bill will be opposed by some of the Senate's Southern Democrats--who like neither Hawaii's political complexion nor its lack of a color line--but the prospects for a 49th state are better than ever before.

The Senate:

P: Passed unanimously a bill giving the District of Columbia, which has long endured taxation without representation, a non-voting delegate in the House with the same status as that of territorial delegates. The bill now goes to the House, where it faces a long, slow but favorable future.

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