Puerto Rico Status Act

Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act

Long title	To provide for the admission of the State of Puerto Rico into the Union.
Announced in	the 117th United States Congress
Sponsored by	Darren Soto (D-FL) Jenniffer González (R-PR)
Number of co-sponsors	78 (60 Democrats & 18 Republicans)
Legislative history
Introduced in the House of Representatives as H.R. 1522 by Darren Soto (D‑FL) on March 2, 2021 Committee consideration by House Committee on Natural Resources

The Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act, H.R. 4901, is a bill introduced during the 116th United States Congress. The intention of the bill is to grant Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, admission into the Union as a state. The bill was originally introduced in the 116th Congress and was reintroduced as H.R. 1522, on March 2, 2021 in the 117th Congress. It was referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources with last action taken on June 16, 2021. A voting session on H.R. 1552 has been delayed to March 2022 until there’s consensus with competing bill H.R. 2070 sponsored by Nydia Velázquez, which calls for a status convention but further prolong the debate on Puerto Rico’s political status in Congress especially with the upcoming midterms.

The statehood process follows with a simple majority vote in the House and 60 votes required in the Senate. If voters in Puerto Rico were to choose “Yes” in their one last referendum accepting the statehood bill approved by |United States Congress|117th Congress]]. Then the President of the United States, Joe Biden would sign a official proclamation admitting the island as the 51st or 52nd state.

Background

Main article: Political status of Puerto Rico

In 1898, following the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, Spain ceded the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico and its surrounding archipelago to the United States. Initially run by the military, from 1900 onwards measures began to be enacted giving the people of Puerto Rico a measure of local civilian government, while bringing the population more within the larger community of the United States. This began with the establishment of the elected House of Delegates in 1900, while in 1902 the post of Resident Commissioner was established. The Resident Commissioner was a non-voting member, similar to other non-voting members of the House of Representatives, intended to represent the interests of Puerto Rico in the United States Congress. However, unlike other territories, Puerto Rico's was not named as a "delegate", as it was argued that such a title gave an implication that the territory was on the road towards becoming a state, which was not guaranteed for possessions obtained as a result of war. In 1917 the Jones–Shafroth Act saw the creation of an elected Senate, as well as granting U.S. citizenship to all Puerto Ricans born after April 25, 1898. In 1947, the Elective Governor Act granted Puerto Rico the right to its own elected governor for the first time, while in 1950 Puerto Rico was granted the right to hold a constitutional convention, with a view to the territory having its own constitution. Approved in a referendum in 1952, the new Puerto Rican constitution changed the status of the territory into that of an unincorporated "Commonwealth". In this context, Puerto Rico is a territory that is controlled by the federal government, but in which the full provisions of the Constitution are not in force.

Statehood movement

Main article: Statehood movement in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is the largest of the United States' overseas territories, both in terms of size and population, with its status meaning that its population of around 3 million, all of whom are US citizens, are not entitled to vote for their head of state, or have full representation in the Congress. Becoming a state would allow Puerto Rico full representation, giving it two members of the United States Senate, as well as a number of members of the House of Representatives, apportioned according to its population - based on 2019 estimates using the Huntington–Hill method, Puerto Rico would be entitled to four seats in the House. Statehood would also give Puerto Rico a number of votes in the electoral college responsible for electing the President. Statehood would also allow Puerto Rico greater access to federal funding programs that states enjoy, an issue that became increasingly apparent following recent natural disasters that have affected the island, most notably Hurricane Maria in 2017, the effects of which caused as much as $90 billion worth of damage, with the response of the federal government being heavily criticised.

In 2017, following the success of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP) in gaining control of the Legislative Assembly, as well as the governorship, Puerto Rico followed the example of Washington, D.C. by appointing a delegation of shadow congresspeople, with two senators and five representatives. The purpose of this delegation, set up by the Puerto Rico Equality Commission, is to lobby the United States Congress over the question of statehood.

A number of referenda have been held on Puerto Rico's potential future status, with the first of these taking place in 1967. Since the first, these have seen support for statehood steadily increase, even as the set up of each referendum has altered. Prior to 2019, the most recent was held in 2017, and saw 97% choose statehood as the option. However, this was on a turnout of just over 22%, as a result of a boycott of the vote by many of Puerto Rico's major political parties.

In 2017, Jenniffer González Colón, the non-voting Resident Commissioner, introduced a bill into the House of Representatives requiring the Congress support the holding of a vote on Puerto Rico's status and, in the event of a vote in favor of statehood, that it undertake the necessary preparations, including the amendment or repeal of legislation related to Puerto Rico as a territory, prior to Puerto Rico being admitted by January 3, 2025. This bill was referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources, but did not reach a vote on the floor of the House.

In October 2019, a new bill was introduced by José E. Serrano, a Democratic congressman from New York, who was born in Puerto Rico, intended to bring about Puerto Rico's admission. Unlike the previous bill, which had just a single cosponsor, this received a total of 60 cosponsors, including 42 Democrats and 18 Republicans. As with the 2017 bill, it was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, but did not reach a vote in the full House.

Provisions

A corresponding bill, the Law for the Final Definition of the Political Status of Puerto Rico, was introduced in Puerto Rico's Legislative Assembly and approved by both its houses in March 2020. It was through this that the 2020 plebiscite was held, which provided a majority in favor of statehood.

Opinion

Although the 2020 plebiscite provided a majority in favor of statehood, there were many articles written since it took place, pointing out that the turnout was a little over 52%, with 623,000 of the 2.3 million registered voters in Puerto Rico voting for statehood. While opinion polls among the population in the United States seem to favor Puerto Rico's admission, support for which has been relatively high since the 1960s, in Puerto Rico itself there is a seemingly higher degree of ambivalence to the idea, based on Puerto Rico's national identity, which may potentially be lost were it to become a full part of the United States. This can be illustrated by the fact that the pro-independence Puerto Rican Independence Party (Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño, PIP) candidate for governor received 14% of the vote in the 2020 election.

Although statehood has formed part of the party platforms of both major parties in the United States, senior figures in the Republican Party have publicly indicated their opposition to the admission of Puerto Rico, with Mitch McConnell, the then Senate Majority Leader, saying in 2019 that moves to admit Puerto Rico, as well as Washington D.C., amounted to "full-bore socialism", with both potential new states likely to return perpetual Democratic members of the Senate, and so the Republican majority would oppose the entry of both. This is in spite of evidence that voters in Puerto Rico may well be more conservative than voters in Washington, D.C. – at the time of the 2020 vote, the Governor, Resident Commissioner, Speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives and President of the Puerto Rico Senate, although members of the pro-statehood PNP, also sat as conservative Republicans. Despite the seemingly fixed position of the Senate leadership, legislators of both parties, following the result of the 2020 vote, have indicated a willingness to open the debate of Puerto Rico's status in Congress.

Legislative history

Congress	Short title	Bill number(s)	Date introduced	Sponsor(s)	# of cosponsors	Latest status
116th Congress	Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act of 2019	H.R. 1965	March 28, 2019	Darren Soto (D-FL)	21	Died in committee
		H.R. 4901	October 29, 2019	José E. Serrano (D-NY)	60	Died in committee
117th Congress	Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act of 2021	H.R. 1522	March 2, 2021	Darren Soto (D-FL)	77	Referred to committees of jurisdiction
		S. 780	March 16, 2021	Martin Heinrich (D-NM)	5	Referred to committees of jurisdiction

See also

• DC Admission Act
• 2012 Puerto Rican status referendum
• Statehood movement in Puerto Rico