A bill calling for a binding vote on Puerto Rico’s future status — including an option for statehood — will be voted Thursday in the House of Representatives.
After weeks of often prickly negotiations, lawmakers of Puerto Rican descent on both sides of the contentious statehood debate reached a deal Wednesday to vote on the measure in the final days of the Democratic-controlled Congress.
“After 124 years of colonialism, Puerto Ricans deserve a fair, transparent, and democratic process to finally solve the status question,” Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., said Wednesday. “Looking forward to making history.”
Even if approved by the House, the bill faces an unlikely future in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, and is unlikely to get a vote before the end of the year.
But it marks one of the biggest steps ever toward determining a final status for the U.S.-ruled island of 3.2 million people.
The bill would set up a vote on Election Day 2023 with three choices: statehood, independence, or so-called independence with free association, under which Puerto Rico would be an independent nation bound to the U.S. by a treaty governing diplomatic, military and/or economic relations.
Keeping the island’s current status as a commonwealth, under which the island has no voting representation in Congress or presidential elections, would not be an option in the plebiscite.
The push for a decision on Puerto Rico’s future has been spearheaded by Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s top lieutenant.
“This historic legislation will grant Puerto Ricans the self-determination they deserve and allow them determine the future of their island themselves,” Hoyer said Wednesday.
Puerto Ricans have narrowly voted in favor of statehood before, but those plebiscites were not binding.
The bill was passed by a House committee last summer and seemed ready to cruise through the House. But it was delayed by intense infighting between statehood supporters and opponents, many of whom believe that statehood would eventually kill off the island’s unique culture and reliance on the Spanish language.
Rep. Jenniffer Gonzalez, R-Puerto Rico, the island’s non-voting representative in Congress, derided Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., for supposedly seeking to upend the delicate compromises that led to the deal.
“It’s sad ... a person who lives in New York, who doesn’t live in Puerto Rico, keeps in suspense 3.2 million U.S. citizens who live on the island, in a permanent colony,” Gonzalez said.
Velazquez, the dean of the Puerto Rican caucus in Congress, clapped back, saying the progressive firebrand has made a valuable contribution to the debate.
“She’s ALWAYS stood by the Puerto Rican people on the island & in New York,” Velazquez wrote in a tweet.
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