Delaware Sen. Tom Carper has once again introduced a bill that would grant D.C. statehood, a companion to the House version offered earlier this year by D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton.

In a press release, Norton says she’s grateful for the show of support from Carper, noting that “Once Senator Carper promised me he would introduce the D.C. Statehood bill in the Senate last Congress, I knew it would happen.” The bill has 17 co-sponsors, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Whip Richard Durbin.

Norton reintroduced the New Columbia Admission Act to the House in January with 93 co-sponsors. During the 113th Congress, the House statehood bill was ultimately co-sponsored by 112 members and the Senate companion by 21 senators.

In a major victory for statehood advocates, Carper held the first-ever Senate hearing on the bill in September. But hopes were quickly brought back to Earth when Carper, the only Senator to attend the entire hearing, said he could not guarantee the bill would move out of committee. (It didn’t.)

Prospects for the bills’ advancement in a Congress controlled by the GOP, with majorities in both the Senate and the House, look even worse this year. But hey: At least Bernie Sanders is on board.

Photo by Mr. T in D.C. via Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0