US Senator Martin Heinrich is leading the introduction of legislation to allow the people of Puerto Rico to determine the island’s political future.
Surrounded by fellow members of Congress and Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi, Hienrich said it’s been more than 100 years since Puerto Ricans became US citizens and a permanent decision on the island’s political status is long overdue. He says theSenate version of the bill is the exact same as the one that passed the House earlier this session.
“This process would allow voters in Puerto Rico to make an informed choice between statehood and independence and sovereignty and free association with the United States,” he said. “I have always had a strong interest in this issue and in part it’s because of my own home state’s long and winding path to statehood. It took us 50 New Mexico statehood bills to get there, many, many decades before we finally became the 47th state of the United States.”
Gov. Pierluisi says the bill is responding to the moral imperative of putting an end to the century-old colonial status of Puerto Rico and providing a permanent non-territorial solution.
The Puerto Rico Status Act was drafted with extensive input from members of Congress; local elected government officials; citizenship, immigration, and constitutional law experts; and hundreds of residents of Puerto Rico. The legislation previously passed the House of Representatives on a bipartisan basis on Dec. 15th, 2022. The Biden-Harris administration endorsed the legislation with a favorable Statement of Administration Policy.
