Puerto Rican Governor Rossello to Immediately Push for Statehood

Puerto Rico's new governor was sworn in Monday, promising an immediate push for statehood in a territory facing a deep economic crisis.

Gov. Ricardo Rossello, 37, proposed several measures aimed at alleviating the crisis shortly after he was sworn in at midnight. Among them is a proposal to hold a referendum that would ask voters whether they prefer statehood or independence. Many have argued that Puerto Rico's political status has contributed to its decade-long crisis that has prompted more than 200,000 people to flee to the U.S. mainland in recent years.

"The United States cannot pretend to be a model of democracy for the world while it discriminates against 3.5 million of its citizens in Puerto Rico, depriving them of their right to political, social and economic equality under the U.S. flag," Rossello said in his inaugural speech, delivered in Spanish. "There is no way to overcome Puerto Rico's crisis given its colonial condition."

The crowd rose to its feet and cheered as Rossello announced that he would fly to Washington, D.C., Monday to back a bill to admit Puerto Rico as the 51st state.

He also said he would soon hold elections to choose two senators and five representatives to Congress and send them to Washington to demand statehood, a strategy used by Tennessee to join the union in the 18th century. The U.S. government has final say on whether Puerto Rico can become a state.

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In a bit of a flashback, President Ford called for Puerto Rico to become a state in 1977.

H.R. 727, the Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Process Act, Gains Sponsors

Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi announced today that 10 additional Members of Congress have joined as cosponsors of H.R. 727, the Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Process Act, a bipartisan bill that would result in Puerto Rico becoming a state on January 1, 2021 once a majority of the electorate in Puerto Rico votes in favor of admission in a federally-sponsored vote.

The bill now has 61 cosponsors—48 Democrats and 13 Republicans. The number of Republican cosponsors for H.R. 727 has surpassed the number of Republican cosponsors for H.R. 2000, Pierluisi’s political status bill in the last Congress, which ultimately obtained 131 total cosponsors.

In a November 2012 referendum in Puerto Rico, sponsored by the local government, voters soundly rejected Puerto Rico’s current territory status and expressed a clear preference for statehood.

H.R. 727 would authorize a vote to be held in Puerto Rico within one year of the bill’s enactment—that is, no later than the end of 2017. The ballot would consist of a single question: “Shall Puerto Rico be admitted as a State of the United States?” In 2014, at Pierluisi’s initiative, and over the objections of the Governor of Puerto Rico and his allies, Congress enacted a $2.5 million appropriation to enable Puerto Rico to conduct the first-federally sponsored vote in its history, so long as certain conditions are met. Under H.R. 727, the admission vote authorized by the bill may be funded with the $2.5 million that Congress approved. This is appropriate because a straightforward vote on admission clearly satisfies the conditions that the federal government established in the appropriations law.

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Government Accountability Office Report on Puerto Ricoan Statehood Released

The Government Accountability Office is projecting that Puerto Rico would receive billions of additional federal dollars if it became a state, with some observers predicting the report will rekindle the statehood debate over the financially troubled island.

The GAO report, released Monday, estimates that federal spending on many programs would increase by hundreds of millions or billions of dollars if Puerto Rico became the 51st state. That would potentially allow the commonwealth's government to use its revenues to address its mounting debt problem, spurred by the popularity of its bonds, which are tax-exempt at the federal, state, and local levels.

The bonds were downgraded to speculative grade by all three major rating agencies earlier this year. The study did not produce specific figures, but projects possible spending ranges for various categories.

Many of the most significant changes would likely involve social welfare spending. The GAO said Medicare spending could increase by as much as $1.5 billion annually under statehood, while Medicaid spending could increase from about $400 million to about $1.5 billion per year. However, the report also said spending on Medicare could remain almost flat, depending on the number people eligible to receive it. Supplemental security income spending on the island could increase very much to between $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion from roughly $24 million on a similar federal program in 2011, according to the report.

The report estimated a roughly $115 million annual increase in federal highway spending. Puerto Ricans, who are American citizens, would also pay the U.S. government about another $2 billion annually in federal income taxes, the report states. Corporate income tax from companies operating in Puerto Rico might increase between $700 million and $5 billion according to the GAO, but some businesses might leave Puerto Rico if they lose the favorable corporate tax climate they currently enjoy there. Under special multi-year agreements with Puerto Rico, some of these corporations pay corporate income tax rates far below the commonwealth's maximum rate of 39%. Instead they pay a special excise tax, the legality of which has been questioned by some observers and even the Internal Revenue Service.

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Puerti Rico Referendum Bill Introduced to Senate

Puerto Rico just took a small step in the direction of becoming the 51st U.S. state.

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) submitted legislation Wednesday that would mandate a referendum asking Puerto Rican residents if the island should become a U.S. state in an up-or-down vote. The Senate resolution, called the Puerto Rico Status Resolution Act, is an identical companion version to legislation already filed in the House by the island’s non-voting representative, Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi.

“In 2012, 54 percent of Puerto Ricans rejected their current relationship with the United States,” Heinrich said in a press release. “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. Puerto Rico has spent nearly 116 years as an American territory. That’s long enough.”

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They Ought to Have Called Themselves 'East Colorado'

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