List of U.S. State Partition Proposals - Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

The District of Columbia is an insular federal district separate from any state and under direct control of the United States Congress. Residents of the capital have no voting representation in Congress, nor complete control over their local government. There has been a recurring movement since the 1960s to make the District of Columbia into a state in order to permit residents full voting representation in Congress and control over local affairs. An alternate proposal is for Congress to return most of the District of Columbia (excepting the immediate vicinity of the Capitol and White House) to the state of Maryland (a process known as retrocession), as was done with the Virginia portion of the District in 1846.