House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer promised that a bill granting statehood to Washington, DC, would be brought to the House floor this year.

“DC must be granted statehood,” the longtime Maryland congressman said in a statement this week. “The residents of the District must be granted the same protections as their fellow citizens in neighboring states.”

Hoyer also used his statement to blast President Trump’s handling of protests which have convulsed the capitol in recent days, saying the push for statehood was now more urgent than ever.

The bill, H.R. 51, was introduced by the district’s non-voting delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton last January.

“With Leader Hoyer’s support and Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s continuing leadership, we are now assured that the House will make history this year with passage of the DC statehood bill for the first time in either chamber in the District’s 219-year history,” she said Friday.

Statehood has been a longtime goal for DC residents. They currently have no voting representation in either the Senate or House of Representatives. Many district residents sport license plates reading a version of the motto “no taxation without representation.”

D.C. statehood has long been a priority for Democrats given the liberal tilt of the city, while conservatives have generally balked at the idea. Plates carrying the motto were removed from President Trump’s White House limousine in August 2018.