The Puerto Rico Statehood Council (PRSC) welcomed yesterday’s Senate Energy & Natural Resources hearing on the state of the U.S. territories and Congress’s continued attention to Puerto Rico and its political status. While the focus of the hearing covered broad issues across all U.S. territories, the detrimental impacts of Puerto Rico’s unincorporated territory status and the concerns with the content of recent status proposals were discussed by several members of the committee. However, despite these issues being discussed during the hearing, more time is required to adequately address Puerto Rico’s political status. Therefore, PRSC continues to call for a hearing that specifically addresses Puerto Rico’s unincorporated territory status and the democratic mandate for statehood from Puerto Rico’s voters.
Yesterday’s hearing comes at an important time for the people of Puerto Rico as the island continues to restructure its debt, rebuild its water and energy infrastructure, address economic challenges facing the island and prepare for hurricane season. The hearing also occurs one week after the introduction of status legislation H.R. 9246 by Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner Pablo Hernández Rivera. While PRSC has concerns over the proposal as written, its introduction reiterates the need for focused congressional action on resolving Puerto Rico’s territory status.
PRSC is pleased that several members spoke and asked about Puerto Rico’s unequal treatment, as well as the constitutional issues with the resident commissioner’s proposal. The Committee’s ranking member, Sen. Martin Heinrich, recognized in his opening statement the “reality where millions of Americans continue to experience a very different relationship with the federal government than those living on the mainland.” Later in the hearing Sen. Ruben Gallego asked about the “disparities” U.S. veterans in Puerto Rico endure despite their service, because “their benefits are entirely zip code related instead of the fact that they serve their country.”
In regards to the constitutional status options available to Puerto Rico, Sen. Ron Wyden clarified in his questioning that the only non-territorial “alternatives to the current unincorporated territory status under the constitution are essentially statehood, nationhood as a purely independent nation or nationhood freely associated with the United States.” Additionally, Sen. Wyden clarified that any proposals claiming to establish a territorial “commonwealth that isn’t governed by Congress” are merely “unconstitutional fantasies” and a “distraction” from Puerto Rico becoming a state or independent nation.
“Yesterday’s hearing represents an important acknowledgement of the issues facing Puerto Rico, but PRSC does not believe one Senate hearing on all of the issues facing all of the country’s territories is a sufficient focus from Congress,” said George Laws García, executive director of PRSC. “Simply put, the more than 3 million U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico deserve more than occasional discussion and temporary attention on the long-standing issues facing the island. Additionally, Puerto Rico’s status deserves its own, independent hearing for members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives to discuss and debate the issue that is driving most of the island’s aforementioned structural inequalities. Ultimately, Congress must recognize that the island’s future and the democratic rights of its people cannot remain an afterthought. We appreciate the Senate’s willingness to engage on these issues, but much more work remains to be done.”
The Puerto Rico Statehood Council renews its call for dedicated, standalone congressional hearings focused specifically on Puerto Rico’s immediate challenges as well as separate hearings examining a path forward on statehood. Such hearings would provide lawmakers an opportunity to hear directly from Puerto Rican residents, status experts and elected leaders regarding the island’s future.
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The Puerto Rico Statehood Council is a Washington, D.C. based, non-partisan, 501(c)4 non-profit issue advocacy organization. We are dedicated to advancing the goal of full equality and democracy for the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico through statehood.