Dear Members and Friends,

Last week, a bill was introduced in the Senate to grant DC Statehood. We had a record 30 Senators supporting Statehood last session. Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced a new statehood bill on the first day of the new Congress (H.R. 51) with a record 155 cosponsors, representing 38 States and 3 territories. This is the largest number of House members who have ever cosponsored a statehood bill. On January 4, 2019, Speaker Pelosi issued a statement in support od statehood. Support for statehood was also included in H.R. 1, the Democratic caucus’s landmark democracy reform bill.

If the Democrats take the Senate in November 2020, there is a very good chance Congress might approve statehood for the residential and commercial parts of the District with the federal enclave in the center remaining the District of Columbia, the seat of government of the United States.

The Citizens Federation in collaboration with the Civic Federation will hold a panel discussion on the issues statehood will pose for the residents of our city. We believe the pros and cons of statehood should be discussed. The panel will be held on March 26 at 441 4^th Street NW from 6:30 PM till 8:30 PM. The meeting is open to the public. Please distribute this invitation widely.

Best Regards,

Earl Williams

President

dccitizensfederation.org

Dear Members and Friends,

The Citizens Federation is off to a great start in 2019. Two associations are applying for membership. They are the Belleview Neighborhood Citizens Association and the Spring Valley Neighborhood Citizens Association. If you have not remitted your 2019 dues payment, please do so. We are stronger together. We are pleased to announce Malissa Freese, President of the River Terrace Community Organization has joined our Board.

The Federation had an eventful year in 2018! To name a few of our accomplishments: We held two panel discussions on DC Comprehensive Plan (Comp Plan). We held the first Council candidates forum that included every candidate. We held meetings on the Capital Grid Project; 5G towers coming to our neighborhoods; and had the newly appointed Deputy Mayor for Education as our guest speaker at our December luncheon. Sandra Mattavous-Frye, Chair of the Peoples Council was the recipient of our Outstanding Citizen Award (Click here for pictures). We sent letters to the Council objecting to the Mayor’s proposed changes to the framework language to the Comp Plan and in support of the Clean Energy Bill. We encourage everyone to add their email address in our website, dccitizensfederation.org to keep abreast of our activities.

We do not meet in January or February due to the unpredictable weather.  However, we will meet in March. If there is an issue that affects our neighborhoods and you would like for us discuss at our future meeting, please let us know! Happy New Year and thank you for the continued support.

Regards,

W. Earl Williams
President
president@dccitizensfederation.org

Dear Members and Friends,

On December 3, we held our annual holiday luncheon at the Dacor Bacon House. I want to thank all who attended. Our guest speaker Paul Kihn, Deputy Mayor for Education detailed his plans to improve the educational landscape in our city. He then answered questions from attendees for 20 minutes before rushing off the attend the Mayor’s announcement regarding her nomination for the Chancellor position.

We awarded our Outstanding Citizen Award to Sandra Mattavous-Frye who has headed the Office of the People’s Council since 2011. Without her intercession, we would have a much different utility marketplace and all she has done for individual ratepayers.

The Federation is very concerned for the homeless individuals and families in our city. We have supported a great organization, Pathways to Housing DC (pathwaysdc.org), for the last several years at our luncheon. I want to thank all who brought items for the newly homed participants. Lena Permut, Pathways Donor Relations Officer, gave a wonderful speech on the great work Pathways is doing to help long-term homeless off the streets and into a home.

Warm Regards,
Earl Williams
President

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Dear Members and Friends,

Please join us on September 25th, 2018 for our public meeting:
6:30pm – 8:30pm
441 4th Street NW
Citywide Conference Center
11th Floor South

Smaller internet cell towers are coming to all our neighborhoods. Companies are moving quickly to move to 5G internet speed. For that to happen, internet cells must spread out across the city. Our guest speaker is Carley Didden from Crown Castle, a communications infrastructure company. Please come out to find out how this will affect you and your community.

Earl Williams
President