(Photo by Eric BARADAT / AFP) (Photo by ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-controlled House approved a bill Friday to make the District of Columbia the 51st state, saying Congress has both the moral obligation and constitutional authority to ensure that the city’s 700,000 residents are allowed full voting rights, no longer subject to “taxation without representation.”

Holmes Norton held a news conference to discuss “efforts to protect D.C.’s local laws during the FY2019 appropriations process, including gun safety, anti-discrimination, labor, marijuana and abortion.Ó (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

D.C.’s population is larger than those of Wyoming and Vermont, and the new state would be one of seven with populations under one million, she said.

Opponents, mostly Republicans, called the bill a power grab for the firmly Democratic city, and said the nation’s founding fathers intended the capital to be separate from the other states.

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The bill also would reduce the size of the federal district to a tourist-friendly area that includes the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court, federal monuments and the federal executive, legislative and judicial office buildings adjacent to the National Mall and the Capitol.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser invoked Douglass as she hailed the “historic vote” bringing the city closer than ever to becoming the 51st state.

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