Overview
- Rep. Rich McCormick, who introduced the Make DC Square Again Act on Wednesday, pitched it as a response to Virginia voters approving a Democratic-favored congressional map.
- The bill would reverse Congress’s 1846 retrocession of Arlington and Alexandria, arguing the Constitution’s Enclave Clause permits federal control of a capital district but grants no power to give land back.
- A Tazewell Circuit Court judge has already blocked certification of the redistricting referendum, and the Virginia Supreme Court is slated to review the measure next week.
- Democrats and civil-rights advocates condemned the proposal as unconstitutional and punitive, with Rep. Don Beyer warning it would deprive his constituents of rights and the ACLU of D.C. calling D.C. a political football.
- Reincorporation would shift roughly 250,000 to 400,000 Northern Virginia residents into D.C., likely costing them full House and Senate representation and redrawing Virginia’s political map, though analysts say the bill faces steep odds in Congress.