16/02/14 11:59 from Caribbean Business - More Local News
US senator files status bill calling for ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ vote on PR statehood Issued: February 13, 2014 New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich has filed legislation in Congress calling for a federally sanctioned “Yes” or “No” plebiscite on Puerto...
US senator files status bill calling for ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ vote on PR statehood
By CB Online Staff
New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich has filed legislation in Congress calling for a federally sanctioned “Yes” or “No” plebiscite on Puerto Rico statehood.
“Puerto Rico has spent nearly 116 years as an American territory. That’s long enough. The debate over Puerto Rico’s status needs to be settled once and for all so that its people can focus on fostering a more prosperous future.”
Wyden and Heinrich have both said that the November 2012 plebiscite showed that a majority of Puerto Ricans don’t favor the current commonwealth status.
The measure, co-sponsored by fellow Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, mirrors a bill filed in the U.S. House of Representatives last year by Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi. It comes as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is about to release an economic analysis on the impact of statehood.
“In 2012, 54 percent of Puerto Ricans rejected their current relationship with the United States. We have a responsibility to act on that referendum, and this step is critical in that effort. My home state of New Mexico spent 66 years as a territory before gaining statehood in 1912 — the longest of any state,” Heinrich said.
Pierluisi’s HR 2000 has yet to be taken up by the House Natural Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over territorial issues.
“Those of us who seek equality and justice through statehood understand that this struggle requires passion and determination, but that it also demands strategic thought and action. The filing of a Senate companion bill to H.R. 2000 demonstrates that the momentum in favor of statehood continues to build. We are closer than ever before to achieving our goal. I thank pro-statehood leaders in Puerto Rico for their support and, in particular, I want to recognize the efforts that former Governor Carlos Romero Barceló has made in the U.S. Senate,” Pierluisi said.
HR 2000, the Puerto Rico Status Resolution Act, is a bipartisan bill that outlines the rights and responsibilities of statehood, provides for a vote in Puerto Rico on the territory’s admission as a state, and describes the steps that the federal government would take if a majority of voters favor admission in a “Yes” or “No” referendum.”
Specifically, the ballot should ask voters a single question: “Do you want Puerto Rico to be admitted as a State of the United States?”
The $1.1 trillion budget approved by Congress last month includes the $2.5 million sought by President Barack Obama to advance a resolution of Puerto Rico’s political status issue. The money would go for voter education and a plebiscite on the island on options that would “resolve” the fundamental question of the island’s future political status.
Wyden and Heinrich have both said that the November 2012 plebiscite showed that a majority of Puerto Ricans don’t favor the current commonwealth status.
Wyden made waves in Puerto Rico last year and drew the ire of the island’s Popular Democratic Party for his blunt dismissal of commonwealth as a future option to resolve the status question as chair of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee. He is now chairing the Senate Finance Committee, making him the top tax writer in the upper chamber.
PDP officials ripped the Senate bill.
Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration Director Juan E. Hernández, the García Padilla administration’s point man in Washington, said the bill fails to address the pressing economic needs of the commonwealth and the federal priorities that would improve the lives of nearly 4 million Puerto Ricans.
“This bill shows how out of step some Members of Congress are with what will actually help Puerto Rican families. Puerto Rico needs people to come together to find solutions to our most pressing problems. We need partners on Capitol Hill that will help protect our borders, stem narco-trafficking, encourage a diverse energy portfolio and create federal incentives to boost job creation on the Island. Gov. García Padilla’s administration has been clear from day one that the old political paradigm of statehood being Puerto Rico’s only Washington issue is over. Puerto Ricans in the United States also deserve better than this,” Hernández said.
The $2.5 million in the federal budget for Puerto Rico will be granted to the island’s State Elections Commission “for objective, nonpartisan voter education about, and a plebiscite on, options that would resolve Puerto Rico’s future political status.”
Before any expenditures were made, the U.S. attorney general would have to approve an expenditure plan for “voter education and plebiscite administration, including approval of the plebiscite ballot” and ensure the status options provided to voters weren’t “incompatible with the Constitution and laws and policies of the United States.”
It would mark the first direct federal role in a Puerto Rico status plebiscite since the launch of commonwealth more than 60 years ago.
In a March 2011 report, the President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status found that the island’s development needs were hindered by lack of resolution of the ultimate status question. The issue also raises questions about the appropriate federal policies related to Puerto Rico.
It remains to be seen what mechanism would be used to address the status issue. Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla had pledged to convene a constituent assembly this year if Washington doesn’t act. New York Rep. José Serrano and Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi contend the White House language precludes an assembly.
Any federally sanctioned action would likely come at least two years after a locally sponsored referendum on the status issue on election-day in November 2012.
In the plebiscite’s two-question vote, 53.97 percent of voters said they were against continuing Puerto Rico’s current commonwealth territory status. A second question had voters choose among “nonterritorial” alternatives to the current status, with 61.13 percent voting for statehood, 33.34 percent voting for Puerto Rico becoming a nation in a free association with the U.S. and 5.49 percent voting for independence. Some 26 percent of ballots cast were left blank to protest that the status quo was left off the second ballot.
García Padilla maintains that the blank votes dropped support for statehood to just 44 percent. He and his commonwealth Popular Democratic Party argue the ballot was rigged against the current status and that the empty ballots represent a protest against commonwealth’s exclusion from the second question. He had pledged to hold a constituent assembly on the status issue in 2014 if a congressionally binding plebiscite was not held.
The statehood New Progressive Party and Puerto Rican Independence Party maintain that the results of the two-step plebiscite represent a clear rejection of the continuation of the current territorial status. Those voting “no” included statehood supporters, as well as advocates of independence and free association.
The White House, meanwhile, has said “the results were clear, the people of Puerto Rico want the issue of status resolved, and a majority chose statehood in the second question.”
“Now is the time for Congress to act and the administration will work with them on that effort so that the people of Puerto Rico can determine their own future,” reads a statement by the White House issued in early December 2012.
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US Rep. Doc Hastings to retire; oversees PR issues in House Issued: February 13, 2014 Veteran Republican Rep. Doc Hastings, who oversees Puerto Rico issues in the lower chamber of Congress as chairman of the U.S. House Natural Resources....
US Rep. Doc Hastings to retire; oversees PR issues in House
By CB Online Staff
Veteran Republican Rep. Doc Hastings, who oversees Puerto Rico issues in the lower chamber of Congress as chairman of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, announced Thursday he’ll retire at the end of the year.
Hastings is considered a critic of statehood for Puerto Rico. He ordered a Government Accountability Office study in late 2011 on the budget impact of statehood for the island. The results of that study are pending.
In the meantime, the Hastings-headed House Natural Resources Committee has not taken up legislation filed in the lower chamber by Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi last May calling for a “Yes” or “No” vote on Puerto Rico statehood. New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich filed a companion bill to HR 2000 in the upper chamber this week.
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