Washington (CNN) The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing this summer on a proposal to grant statehood to Washington, DC, reportedly the first House hearing in more than 25 years on the long-shot bid to transform the federal district into the nation's 51st state.

The hearing on H.R. 51, titled the "Washington, D.C. Admission Act," will take place July 24, Chairman Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, said in a statement Thursday.

The legislation, which was introduced in January by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's nonvoting House member, would make DC a state and would provide its residents with two senators and at least one voting House member. The state would comprise all of the land currently in DC, excluding the land on which all existing federal buildings and monuments in DC sit.

"I thank Congresswoman Norton for her leadership and her tireless dedication to ensuring that hundreds of thousands of American citizens who live in our nation's capital are afforded the same rights as other Americans across the country," Cummings said in the statement. "I look forward to working closely with Congresswoman Norton, as well as the House and Senate leadership, to hopefully move this bill toward final passage."

The legislation has more than 200 cosponsors -- all Democrats -- and is supported by House leadership, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who is a "strong supporter" of it, according to her deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, though she is not currently a cosponsor.

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