"Who Cares About DC?" It's not a rhetorical question!

It is the personal appeal of a DC resident. It is about democracy in the nation's capital, about voter supression, voting rights and what it means to be a citizen of the United States of America where the right to vote is fundamental in our democracy, but under attack in many places in the U.S.

DC is treated as an agency of the federal government, largely managed by the Congressional Oversight and Government Reform Committee, only one of whose members were elected by residents of the District, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and she has no vote in Congress!

The District’s local government enacts laws and creates programs to spend its own locally-generated tax revenues to benefit its residents. But, Congress reviews and approves or denies any such laws, unlike any of the 50 states.

DC residents cannot appeal to or unelect Members of Congress who decide that they can do a better job of governing the District of Columbia than the DC Council and Mayor.

DC residents pay more income taxes than residents of 22 states, but have no representation in the House or the Senate. That’s why DC license plates read, "END Taxation Without Representation.”

With 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats (or Democratic-caucusing independents) in the Senate in the 119th Congress—and Republicans therefore shy of the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster—there is attention to a legislative process for getting tax and spending bills through the Senate known as reconciliation. Here’s what it is and how it works.

About Filibusters and Cloture

What’s a Continuing Resolution and Why Does It Matter?
By Tanya Somanader, Obama administration, The White House, September 19, 2014