Puerto rico political status: The Unfinished Debate on the Political Status of Puerto Rico and its Relationship with the United States | SALPAL
The Unfinished Debate on the Political Status of Puerto Rico and its Relationship with the United States | SALPAL
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The Unfinished Debate on the Political Status of Puerto Rico and its Relationship with the United States
Written by Norberto Muniz Muniz, J.D., L.L.M. in National Security Candidate, Georgetown Law. Certificate in International Human Rights, Certificate in Legal English
The issue of the political status of Puerto Rico has never been without controversy. Even since 1952, when the United States government agreed to the imposition on Puerto Rico of what is now known as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico through the approval of Law 600 by Congress, the matter has been part of the discussion. Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950 (Pub.L. 81–600), Act of the 81st Congress of the United States. In recent years the political status of Puerto Rico has been met with great attention in the local and US public discussion.
This is because of a number of factors, including (1) the US Congress in 2016 approving the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) (Pub. L. 114-187), bankruptcy law, and (2) several natural disasters occurring on the island, such as Hurricane María and constant earthquakes.
Recently, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) co-wrote the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act of 2020. HR 8113- Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act of 2020, 116th Congress (2019) – (2020). In short, this bill sought to recognize Puerto Rico’s right to create a status convention so that Puerto Ricans could exercise the right to self-determination in a process that would be binding on the United States. This bill recognized an inherent power of the Legislative Branch of Puerto Rico to call a status convention composed of Puerto Rican delegates to propose an option to Puerto Rico’s people of self-determination. It also ordered that the body be semi-permanent because it would be dissolved only when the United States ratified a self-determination option presented to Congress by that status convention. The project requires the creation of a congressional bilateral negotiation commission, including representation from the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and of the resident commissioner of Puerto Rico. Finally, the option of self-determination, which must be outside the United States Constitution’s territorial clause, must be voted on through a referendum by the residents of Puerto Rico. However, the proposed project did not advance in the legislative process, in part due to the proximity of the presidential and congressional elections.
At the local level in Puerto Rico, the Legislative Branch approved a law that authorized a status plebiscite consultation during the November 2020 elections. This plebiscite was the first plebiscite that only had statehood as a status option. In this status consultation, statehood for Puerto Rico obtained 52.52% of the votes. The remaining voters disagreed with statehood as a political status option for Puerto Rico. It is important to note that the results of all these plebiscites have not prompted Congress to take action to resolve the political status of Puerto Rico and its relationship with the United States. People and the press commented that the United States government did not take action on the island’s political status and, as a result, the status quo prevailed.
Despite the initiatives that have recently been proposed at both the local and federal levels to address the political status of Puerto Rico, if the desire of Puerto Ricans is to be admitted as a state to carry out the process of self-determination of the island, the approval of the United States Congress is indispensable. This is because Clause 3 of Article IV of the United States Constitution establishes that “[n]ew states may be admitted by the Congress into this union […].” So the power to admit new states is a power reserved to Congress, but then the Executive has to give its approval through the signature of the President like any other law. The last time this happened was when in 1959 when Congress admitted Hawaii as the 50th state of the union.
Certainly, the situation of Hawaii and Puerto Rico has some similarities. For example, they are not within the continental United States and are likely to have another official language in addition to English, among other similarities. However, there are significant differences regarding the current situation in Puerto Rico and when the United States admitted Hawaii as part of the union. For example, more than 90% of Hawaiians voted in favor of belonging to the union, while in Puerto Rico, based on the last elections’ plebiscite, only 52.52% of Puerto Ricans were in favor of statehood. Furthermore, Hawaii’s economic situation was very different from that of Puerto Rico since the latter has been in a financial crisis for more than a decade. This caused Congress to approve PROMESA in 2016 to allow Puerto Rico to file for bankruptcy, which can only occur under the Territorial Clause of the United States Constitution and not as a state of the union. Therefore, these and other differences have been a stumbling block to advance the request of some statesmen sectors on the island that support statehood.
Another of the barriers that Puerto Rico has faced in the discussion to be admitted as a state is over the congressional seats that should be granted to the island. If the island is admitted as a state of the union, it would have to be granted two seats in the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, in the U.S. House of Representatives, it is estimated that Puerto Rico could have up to five seats of representatives based on the 2010 census. The 2020 census should be reassessed if this estimate remains the same or is reduced, since it is not a secret that many Puerto Ricans have migrated to the states in the last decade.
Thus, the number of congressional seats has generated much debate regarding the political status of Puerto Rico. On the one hand, Democrats bet that Puerto Ricans would be inclined to vote for the Democratic Party. This is because there is a greater tendency for Puerto Ricans residing in the states to vote for the Democratic Party. That was one of the reasons then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said he would support a fair and binding process in which Puerto Ricans can determine the political status of the island. Even Biden supported statehood for Puerto Rico during his campaign if Puerto Ricans decided that this was the status option they wanted for the island.
Meanwhile, Republicans have been inclined not to support statehood because they believe they will lose those representative seats to Puerto Rico if the island is admitted as a state of the union. Former Republican President Trump said in an interview with Fox News that “[a] lot of Puerto Ricans don’t want statehood. They’re doing better the way it has now, frankly.” Similarly, the former majority leader of the Republican Senate, Mitch McConnell, has stated that granting statehood to Puerto Rico would grant two additional senators to the Democratic Party. Therefore, although it could be speculative which party the congressmen of Puerto Rico would belong to if it is admitted as a state, it is an interesting discussion that is part of the equation that the political class in Washington, D. C. does not ignore.
In conclusion, plebiscites as consultations for the self-determination of the peoples are always important. Still, the truth is that the referendum of November 2020 has not been without controversy, in part due to the narrow margin regarding the percentage of votes it obtained statehood. In addition, it has also been the subject of controversy because it did not include other status options, nor did it obtain approval from the United States Congress. Of course, many other factors have influenced Puerto Rico’s political status, including which party in the United States would politically benefit from granting statehood to Puerto Rico.
House votes in favor of resolving Puerto Rico’s territorial status
The House voted Thursday in favor of the Puerto Rico Status Act, which seeks to resolve the U.S. territory’s status and its relationship to the U.S. through a binding plebiscite.
In a 232-191 vote, the bill was passed by 216 Democrats and 16 Republicans. All votes against the bill came from Republicans.
The Puerto Rico Status Act was a compromise between members of Congress who previously sponsored competing bills “to end the colonial status of the island,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., who sponsored the bill.
It combined elements of two bills: the pro-statehood bill introduced by Rep. Darren Soto, D-Fla., and Rep. Jenniffer Gonzalez, a Republican nonvoting member of Congress representing Puerto Rico; and the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act from Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nydia Velázquez, both New York Democrats.
Among the key compromise elements are defining nonterritorial statuses as statehood, independence and sovereignty in free association with the U.S., and providing for a transition to and the implementation of the new status.
Places such as Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands have a sovereignty with free association with the U.S. These are technically independent nations bound to the U. S. by a treaty governing diplomatic, military and economic relations.
The Puerto Rico Status Act also lays out terms for a November 2023 binding plebiscite including all three nonterritorial status options.
Lawmakers from both sides debated the merits of the Puerto Rico Status Act on the House floor Thursday. While Democrats insisted the legislation is a significant step toward Puerto Rico’s decolonization, Republicans worried over the economic implications of changing Puerto Rico’s status.
Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., also voiced concerns over the lack of formal Congress hearings to thoroughly discuss the bill.
Puerto Rico has been under U.S. control since 1898, following the Spanish-American War. Congress and the federal government have since been allowed to treat Puerto Rico as foreign for domestic purposes and a state for international purposes.
This became evident in 2015, when Puerto Rico said it was unable to pay its $70 billion public debt, prompting Congress to create the 2016 Promesa law during the Obama administration because U. S. laws exclude Puerto Rico from the federal bankruptcy code. Promesa put in place the federal financial oversight board and created a mechanism for the territory to restructure its debt in federal court.
Puerto Ricans living on the island have been U.S. citizens for over a century. They can be drafted and serve in the U.S. military but are unable to vote for president. They don’t pay federal income taxes, since they don’t have voting representation in Congress. But they do pay payroll taxes, helping fund federal programs such as Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Puerto Rico has limited or no access to these federal programs with the potential to serve as lifelines in a territory where more than 40% of the population lives in poverty.
A series of Supreme Court rulings from the early 1900s known as the Insular Cases, which were written by most of the justices who legalized racial segregation under Plessy v. Ferguson, has continued to uphold the unequal treatment as legal.
The rulings have continuously given Congress “the power to decide when the U.S. Constitution applies to the territories,” according to Charles Venator-Santiago, director of the Puerto Rican Studies Initiative at the University of Connecticut.
Venator- Santiago, who has been tracking Puerto Rico legislation in Congress for years, said this is the first time since 2010 that the House votes in favor of legislation dealing with changes to Puerto Rico’s territorial status.
The most notable difference this time around is the inclusion of a binding plebiscite. All the referendums that have previously been held in Puerto Rico have been nonbinding.
According to Venator- Santiago’s research, 145 pieces of legislation dealing with changes to Puerto Rico’s territorial status have been debated in Congress over the past several decades.
None of them have ever been approved in the Senate, he said.
The Puerto Rico Status Act now needs 60 votes in the closely divided Senate before it can ever be signed into law by President Biden.
With just one day left of the Democratic-controlled Congress, the status debate has never been on the Senate’s agenda, meaning the process to ensure the bill becomes law will essentially restart next year with the newly elected Congress.
In January, Republicans will have control of the House.
In a statement ahead of Thursday’s hearing, President Biden expressed his support of the Puerto Rico Status Act, calling on Congress “to act swiftly to put the future of Puerto Rico’s political status in the hands of Puerto Ricans, where it belongs.”
Nicole Acevedo
Nicole Acevedo is a reporter for NBC News Digital. She reports, writes and produces stories for NBC Latino and NBCNews.com.
Puerto Rico intends to become the 51st US state
Puerto Ricans voted to join the US as the 51st US state, AP reports.
These are the results of the referendum held in the country.
During the voting, the inhabitants of the island had to answer the question – do they want Puerto Rico to retain its current status as an unincorporated organized territory of the United States. nine0005
At the same time, Puerto Ricans were given three response options: joining the United States, full independence, or the status of a country associated with the United States.
According to the latest data, 54% of the referendum participants were in favor of changing the status, and 46% were in favor of maintaining the current status of the country. At the same time, the most popular answer was the entry of the country into the United States. 61% of Puerto Ricans who took part in the referendum voted for him.
Only 5% of those who voted supported the complete independence of Puerto Rico. nine0005
Recall that Puerto Rico joined the United States in 1898 and currently has the status of a free associated state. For the preservation of the current status, the inhabitants of the country spoke in 1967, 1993 and 1998. This status does not allow Puerto Rico to receive full representation in the US Congress, and those born on the island – to participate in US presidential elections despite their US citizenship.
The final decision on the status of Puerto Rico will be made by the US Congress, or by the President of the country, if he considers the majority of votes sufficient. nine0005
#Puerto Rico
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Puerto Rico party to vote on its political future – Optimism.
kz reconsider or reaffirm their position regarding the political future of the US territory by holding a vote on this issue on the island. nine0005
Statement by José Luis Dalmão, President of the People’s Democratic Party, follows a proposal made last month by a group of US lawmakers to hold a binding plebiscite giving Puerto Ricans three options: become America’s 51st state, become fully independent, or opt for independence with free association – possibly retaining US citizenship and other ties to the US. This vote will not include the possibility of retaining the current Commonwealth status. nine0005
This choice would seem to threaten the future of the Dalmão party, founded in the 1930s, defined by its support for the current status of Puerto Ricans as US citizens but the island quasi-autonomous from the United States.
His main rival, the current governor’s New Progressive Party, advocates statehood.
Possible statehood will not be an option in the 14 August PDP vote. Dalmau said the current status and free association option would be offered, which he did not specify. Party spokesman Angel Raul Matos told The Associated Press it was too early to tell if it would be based on the free association option proposed by US lawmakers as one of three options. nine0005
Within the People’s Democratic Party, opinions differ as to which commonwealth best suits Puerto Rico. Some advocate closer ties with the US, while others seek greater independence in some areas.
“This issue has divided us for decades,” Dahlmau said. “Since two parallel strategies and two different popular parties cannot exist, thousands (of the party’s supporters) must resolve the dispute and make the final decision.” nine0005
The People’s Democratic Party has about 400,000 supporters on the island of 2.3 million people and won about 32% of the gubernatorial vote in the 2020 election – just behind the New Progressive Party with 33%. Support on both sides is waning due to frustration with corruption scandals, economic problems and mismanagement.