The D.C. license plate that Mendelson and Cheh left at the White House. President Obama’s limo currently sports plates that simply say “A Capital City.” Photo by @AlanBlinder

The White House will switch the license plates on the official presidential limousine to tags featuring the District of Columbia’s “Taxation Without Representation” slogan for the duration of President Obama’s second term, the White House says today.

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) visited the White House last week and asked that Obama’s administration renew the practice of President Bill Clinton’s administration of mentioning the District’s lack of statehood on the executive vehicle. Clinton had the plates installed in 2000 when the District began producing them, but they were removed the following year when President George W. Bush took office.

Mendelson and Cheh paid their visit to the White House on the heels of a unanimous vote by the D.C. Council to support a ceremonial resolution asking Obama to use the license plates. That resolution was in part inspired by a petition launched by the pro-statehood group D.C. Vote before Christmas calling for the administration to switch the tags.

Although Obama made little mention of D.C.’s lack of representation or budget autonomy in his first term, the White House says that after four years here, he’s getting the picture.

“President Obama has lived in the District now for four years, and has seen first-hand how patently unfair it is for working families in D.C. to work hard, raise children and pay taxes, without having a vote in Congress,” Keith Maley, a White House spokesman, writes in a email statement. “Attaching these plates to the presidential vehicles demonstrates the president’s commitment to the principle of full representation for the people of the District of Columbia and his willingness to fight for voting rights, home rule and budget autonomy for the District.”

However, the statement did not indicate if Obama will follow this newfound commitment with specific policy initiatives.

The new plates will be attached over the weekend and make their debut next Monday when Obama begins his second term.

UPDATE: The District’s elected officials are praising the White House’s decision in statements released this evening. “I appreciate the President agreeing to bring attention to this important issue during the inauguration festivities,” Mayor Vince Gray says. “As a District resident himself, President Obama has seen up close the injustice of denying voting representation and other forms of robust self-government to the 632,000 people who live in the very shadow of our nation’s most recognizable symbol of democracy.” (Though they have resided at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW for the past four years, Barack and Michelle Obama remain registered voters in Illinois.)

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) calls the license plate switch an outsize show of support for the District lack of status relative to the remainder of the United States. “Kudos to the president for agreeing to a small but larger than life sign of his commitment to the District and its residents,” she says.