University President Thomas LeBlanc expressed support for D.C. statehood in a University release Friday.

LeBlanc announced that GW “strongly” supports the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, a U.S. House of Representatives bill that would admit much of the District as a new state, the release states. LeBlanc said faculty, staff and students who live in the District lack “fair” representation in the government’s most “consequential” decisions on issues like funding to redress racial and health inequity in D.C.

LeBlanc added that GW remains “grateful” to Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., and Mayor Muriel Bowser for their efforts to advance the cause of D.C. statehood.

“We also believe that representation would allow our University more opportunities to contribute, through our academic and research missions, solutions that address these and other significant challenges and improve the lives of all Americans,” LeBlanc said in the release.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., announced last week that the House would hold a vote on D.C. statehood June 26, marking the first time since 1993 that the body will vote on the issue. Norton, the District’s non-voting representative, introduced the bill in January 2019, which has since garnered nearly 230 co-sponsors.

LeBlanc previously voiced GW’s support for D.C. statehood in a letter addressed to former House Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and ranking member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, ahead of a September congressional hearing on the issue.