IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 929 
Recognizing the enduring cultural and historical significance of emancipation 
in the Nation’s capital on the anniversary of President Abraham Lin-
coln’s signing of the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation 
Act, which established the ‘‘first freed’’ on April 16, 1862, and cele-
brating attaining the requisite number of cosponsors for passage of 
the District of Columbia statehood bill in the House of Representatives. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 17, 2020 
Ms. NORTON submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Oversight and Reform 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing the enduring cultural and historical significance 
of emancipation in the Nation’s capital on the anniver-
sary of President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Dis-
trict of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, which 
established the ‘‘first freed’’ on April 16, 1862, and 
celebrating attaining the requisite number of cosponsors 
for 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, brutal and unjustified killings of 
innocent citizens, racial segregation, and legal disenfran-
chisement, among other violations of human rights; 
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•HRES 929 IH 
Whereas, on April 16, 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, 
President Abraham Lincoln signed the District of Colum-
bia Compensated Emancipation Act, which authorized 
the United States Treasury to expend nearly $1,000,000, 
up to $300 per slave, to effect the freeing of about 3,100 
persons of African descent, and offered $100 to former 
slaves who agreed to emigrate to countries outside of the 
United States; 
Whereas, on January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln 
issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which established 
a ‘‘new birth of freedom’’ by legally emancipating mil-
lions of slaves in the 10 States of the Confederacy not 
under Union control, freeing the majority of the Nation’s 
slaves; 
Whereas the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of 
the United States, which reads ‘‘Neither slavery nor in-
voluntary 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 en-
dured 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 slaves were freed, was 
made a legal public holiday in the District of Columbia 
to be celebrated annually on April 16; 
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•HRES 929 IH 
Whereas the residents of the District of Columbia pay more 
per capita in Federal taxes than the residents of any 
State; 
Whereas, on February 11, 2020, the House Committee on 
Oversight and Reform passed H.R. 5803, the Wash-
ington, D.C. Admission Act, the first time the D.C. state-
hood bill has been voted out of a committee since 1993; 
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 require-
ments of citizenship, and otherwise have long made con-
tributions to the life, culture, and leadership of the 
United States, still are denied the voting representation 
in the United States Congress and independence from 
congressional interference in local matters afforded to 
other United States jurisdictions in violation of the basic 
principles of taxation requiring representation and local 
governance; 
Whereas H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, has 
a record 223 cosponsors, more than enough votes to pass 
the House of Representatives with cosponsors alone; and 
Whereas the Senate should pass S. 631, the Washington, 
D.C. Admission Act, which has a record 35 cosponsors: 
Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) recognizes District of Columbia Emanci-
pation Day, marking the anniversary of the end of 
slavery in the District of Columbia and symbolizing 
the aspirations of the citizens of the District of Co-
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•HRES 929 IH 
lumbia for the same rights and freedoms afforded to 
all United States citizens; and 
(2) recognizes that the Washington, D.C. Ad-
mission Act has more than the requisite number of 
cosponsors necessary to pass in the House of Rep-
resentatives and that the House of Representatives 
should pass the Washington, D.C. Admission Act in 
2020. 
Æ 
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