The Democrat-led US House of Representatives has approved a legislation granting statehood to Washington, D.C. for the first time on Capitol Hill after it was created more than 200 years ago.
The bill was passed on Friday on a highly partisan vote of 232-180, reports Xinhua news agency.
Collin Peterson from Minnesota was the only Democrat to vote against the bill.
All House Republicans opposed it and independent lawmaker Justin Amash of Michigan also voted against it.
Introduced by D.C.'s non-voting House member Eleanor Holmes Norton, the bill would shrink the country's capital city to a small area encompassing the White House, Capitol buildings, Supreme Court and other federal buildings along the National Mall.
The rest of the city would become the 51st US state, named the Washington, Douglass Commonwealth after abolitionist Frederick Douglass, according to the bill.
However, it is unlikely to gain traction in the Senate while President Donald Trump has said he would veto the bill if it came to his desk.
