“When I was elected to Congress, I took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, not an oath to vote to throw it aside,” Shuster said.  “Today’s legislation does just this and I cannot support it.” 

“Various Federal Courts and even the Supreme Court have consistently held that giving Washington, DC full voting rights in Congress can only be accomplished by giving the District of Columbia full statehood through a Constitutional Amendment, not by legislative action,” Shuster said.  “If this legislation is enacted, it will cause an immediate Constitutional crisis.” 

Article I, section 2 of the Constitution clearly states that the “House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states.”  The Constitution also includes 11 additional provisions tying voting to statehood.  Washington, DC is not and was never intended to be a state.  The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution with this understanding and the courts have upheld it ever since.   

If this legislation were signed into law, everything passed by Congress would be immediately challenged in the courts, grinding the peoples’ business to a halt and putting the validity of the House itself into question.

“Imagine what would happen if legislation directly affecting the 9^th district was blocked because its passage alone makes it unconstitutional?  How would Pennsylvania’s interests be served by this?  They wouldn’t.” 

“The United States is the strongest democracy in the world because we have a set of guiding principles in our Constitution that is unmatched in the history of the world,” Shuster concluded.  “Weakening our Constitution with this legislation sends the wrong signal to our citizens and the citizens of developing democracies that look to us for guidance.”