license plates

information.

This is a sample version of the plate issued in 2000...Bill Clinton (a supporter of D.C. statehood) put these on all presidential vehicles just before he left office.

I always wondered where that came from...Now I know...interesting.

Ms. Shapiro, angry that Congress and the Supreme Court had blocked efforts to provide Washington with a full vote in the House of Representatives, suggested that a version of the colonial rebel cry by displayed on the district's new license plates.

The proposal won broad support and was approved by the City Council with backing from Mayor Anthony A. Williams. In the first 10 days that the license plates were available, the city distributed 738 sets, the mayor's office said. The Department of Motor Vehicles, usually closed on weekends, was open two consecutive Saturdays to meet the demand.

Frustrated residents protest that the city's residents pay $2 billion in federal taxes annually but have failed to gain a voting representative in Congress.

When the District was created in the 1790's, it had only 14,000 residents, fewer than half the 30,000 required as the smallest permissible Congresional district. Supporters of representation note that the district now has more than half a million residents - more than Wyoming - and still no voting representative.

"I think it is finally sinking in that we don't have a say and we are totally beholden to them," said Carolinn Kuebler, a resident since 1995, referring to Congress.

Under current law, the district is not represented in the Senate; since 1971, it has had a single "delegate" in the House who does not vote except on committee action.

For more on the DC license plates.