Sounds like it's a done deal.
Posted on 01/27/2021 10:36:18 AM PST by RandFan
Top officials in Puerto Rico say they believe they can make progress toward statehood, after voters on the island approved a statehood referendum and now that Democrats control Congress and the White House.
In interviews, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi (D) and Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón (R) said they believed they can build bipartisan support for a statehood measure in the House this year, though both acknowledged the uphill fight such a bill would face in the Senate.
“It will have a substantial majority of support with votes from both sides of the aisle. Primarily Democrats, but there will be a significant number of Republicans supporting the bill. The time has come for Puerto Rico to become a state,” Pierluisi said in an interview. “The ball will go to the Senate’s court, where it will be a tougher fight.”
Pierluisi said he had spoken with members of the Biden administration about advocating for statehood. On the campaign trail, Biden himself said he would help Puerto Rico enroll in Medicaid programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Earned Income Tax Credit, programs that are not open to the American citizens living on the island.
A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The question of status has been the fulcrum of Puerto Rican politics since the 1950s. But a 2016 Supreme Court decision effectively rendering the notion of commonwealth status moot added new urgency to the debate.
That decision shattered the coalition who opposed statehood into camps that today range from independence to a compact of free association, a deal similar to those struck by South Pacific nations that were formerly under federal control. That disruption has effectively meant that statehood is now the most popular status option.
González is working with Reps. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), two members of the House Natural Resources Committee that has jurisdiction over Puerto Rico, to push for a hearing.
“You’ve got Republicans and Democrats supporting Puerto Rico to become a state, so yes, I truly believe that this is the time to make that happen,” she said. “It is time for Congress to hear us out and to allow the people from the island to get their American citizenship fulfilled and empowered.”
Committee chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) has yet to schedule a hearing, though a spokesman hinted that one is coming shortly.
“Chair Grijalva knows that resolving political status is a high priority for the people of Puerto Rico, and he plans to conduct a hearing on ways to resolve that status early in this Congress,” the spokesman, Adam Sarvana, said in an email.
The holdup is likely to come in the Senate, where Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has compared statehood to socialism — though the national Republican platform endorses statehood.
McConnell’s spokesman said he had no update on the minority leader’s position.
But Republicans are not the only ones standing in the way. Reps. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who hold two New York City districts with substantial Puerto Rican populations, have introduced legislation that could make the island an independent nation.
“It is understandable that many of our friends in the Democratic Party have eyed making Puerto Rico a state as the answer” to Puerto Rico’s financial crises and the U.S. Navy testing bombs on the island of Vieques, Velázquez and Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a recent op-ed. “But this approach, often undertaken with the best of intentions, is misguided.”
González pointed to the statehood referendum, which passed in November with 52 percent of the vote, to refute a push for independence.
“They believe in independence, but that’s not what the people of Puerto Rico voted for,” González said in an interview. “They need to respect the voters of the island, and the voters of the island selected statehood. Why try to take that away from them?”
The referendum alone is not sufficient to guarantee Puerto Rico will become a state. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to admit states into the union, after both voters and representatives in Washington approve the state constitution.
“If Congress does what it has done in the past with territories, Congress will come up with a bill, an admission bill, that will propose statehood or offer statehood and then ask the people of Puerto Rico to ratify it, to vote once again to ensure that the people want it,” Pierluisi said. “You’re going to get an overwhelming majority in support of statehood because it’s going to be a totally different environment. They’re going to be voting on Congress’s offer on statehood.”
If a statehood resolution made it through the House, there are at least a few Republican senators who are on the record supporting statehood. González pointed to Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who represent thousands of Puerto Ricans who moved from the island to their state.
“The Florida delegation is always important for Puerto Rico,” González said.
Ping!
They’ll use the same fraud to win statehood, regardless of how the votes go.
It was Eric Cantor’s vote for PR statehood back in 2012 that motivated me to work so hard to primary him out.
Any Republican that supports this is a Bush League Republican.
Get bent and be thankful for your independence. Many of us are looking for the exit to this Hotel California fake Union.
Just what this country needs now is to graft on another piece of necrotic tissue.
We can call them the Welfare State.
How about independence?
Keep pushing PR to become a County of FL and turn it red by offering land to military retirees at a huge discount as long as they commit to reside there for 10 years.
Quash DC Statehood by moving federal departments to blue urban ch*thole cities where they can perfume their odorous blueness and keep it away from the rest of us. Leave DC as a tourist stop only.
Welcome to ‘statehood’........Now, where’s your W-2 and 1040’s?..................
Two more RAT Senators
PR is a drain on the US. PR adds nothing to the US. PR should be independent, or given back to Spain, anything but being part of the US. And take the VI with them.
WHY would the people of PR want statehood?
They’d get hit with federal taxes immediately.
i get why the politicians would want it... as they’d be getting paid off by the dems... but it screws the people
PR was against statehood...something like 75% against. Then Hurricane Maria hit. Country was devastated and went completely broke. Now? Bailouts, bailouts, bailouts! We would be on the hook to pay off PR debt, and it would become a giant welfare wart on the rear of every taxpayer. NO to statehood. Let them have their independence.
Didn’t I just read they have a problem in PR with violence against women being out of control?
Sounds like it's a done deal.
Does the populous really want to pay federal taxes? My friends in the navy from Puerto Rico loved being exempt from paying federal taxes. I admit I was a bit jealous.
We should cut PR loose, and repatriate Hawaii while we are at it
LOL! Statehood = fiscal bailout ‘in trade’ for swamp creature re-reinforcements.
ALL of the states in the nation must agree this is NOT DONE through congress!! BUT HEY the constitution be damned!!!
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