[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 25, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: January 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
CONGRESS CAN HELP END STALEMATE
-Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, when he served as Governor of Puerto
Rico, I had the opportunity to get acquainted with Carlos Romero-
Barcelo.
Now he is the Resident Commissioner in Congress, better known as a
nonvoting Member of Congress from Puerto Rico.
He continues to be loaded with good sense and good leadership skills.
Recently he had an article in Roll Call commenting on the Puerto
Rican plebiscite and what we ought to do.
In his article, he mentions a bill introduced by Congressman Don
Young, which I have not had a chance to look at yet.
But, we ought to be listening to Carlos Romero-Barcelo, as well as
the able, new Governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Rossello.
I ask that Carlos Romero-Barcelo's article from Roll Call be placed
in the Record at this point, and I urge my colleagues who have not read
it to do so.
[From Roll Call, Jan. 6, 1994]
Congress Can Help End Puerto Rico's Status Stalemate
(By Carlos Romero-Barelo)
For the first time in 26 years, the US citizens of Puerto
Rico have voted in a political status plebiscite to express a
preference for commonwealth, statehood, or independence.
In a vote that surprised many, none of the three options
emerged from the Nov. 14 plebiscite with a majority.
``Commonwealth'' garnered 48.6 percent, ``statehood'' 43.6
percent, and ``independence'' 4.4 percent.
The plebiscite was held to fulfill a 1992 campaign promise
made by those of us in the pro-statehood New Progressive
Party who wanted to offer the people of Puerto Rico a way out
of our colonial status: a colonial relationship in which 3.6
million US citizens do not have the right to vote in a
presidential election and are denied voting representation in
Congress as well as full benefits in some of the most
important federal programs.
Commonwealth supporters campaigned on the theme that Puerto
Rico's residents currently enjoy ``the best of both worlds.''
With this spin, they sought to remind voters that they do not
pay federal income taxes and in many cases are employed by
corporations that until this year were exempt from federal
corporate taxation.
As Puerto Rico's sole representative in Congress, every day
when I walk into the House chamber I live the frustration of
disenfranchisement. The stalemate produced by the lack of
majority support for any one particular status option seems
to have heightened the interest of a number of Members in
finding out just what happened. Many have asked me what can
be done in order to help Puerto Rico make a final decision on
its political status and to end the present colonial
relationship.
With commonwealth's plurality margin and the fact that
statehood was a very close second, it's clear that no one is
being fooled into thinking that commonwealth won another
mandate. While in most jurisdictions of the US general
elections can be won by a plurality of votes, when it comes
to effecting a change of status, everyone understands that
winning by a majority is essential.
For the first time since the Commonwealth's inception in
1952, the people of Puerto Rico are subject to the
sovereignty of Congress without the expressed consent of the
majority of Puerto Ricans. For both the people of Puerto Rico
and the United States, which exercises sovereignty over
Puerto Rico, such a situation is untenable. As sovereign, the
United States has an obligation to make sure that Puerto Rico
achieves a political status that has the consent of the
majority.
There's more than one way to resolve the current stalemate.
Perhaps the best way to begin would be making a careful
examination of the definition of commonwealth that was
presented on the plebiscite ballot.
The Constitution and history indicate that such a
commonwealth is neither compatible with the US constitutional
system nor financially viable. And if that is indeed the
case, Congress has an obligation to speak out clearly so that
a future plebiscite will not be vitiated, as the latest one
was, by false and impossible promises by commonwealth
leaders.
In the coming months, Congress will have an opportunity to
review the plebiscite's results, beginning with an upcoming
hearing by the House Natural Resources insular and
international affairs subcommittee to examine the viability
of implementing the status called for in the commonwealth
definition.
But there is another effort that is also aimed at breaking
the status gridlock: a bill offered by Rep. Don Young (R-
Alaska) that provides a mechanism for the unincorporated
territories of the United States to achieve incorporation.
As the ranking member of the Natural Resources panel, Young
has set forth a plan that formalizes a serious intention to
assure the US puts an end to colonial relationships with the
remaining territories (Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands,
American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands) before
the United Nations ``Decade of Decolonization'' comes to an
end.
The Young bill addresses the 95 percent of the Puerto Rican
electorate that supports the achievement of three major goals
for Puerto Rico: irrevocable, permanent union with the US,
irrevocable and guaranteed US citizenship; and equal
treatment with the states in all federal programs. But the
achievement of each of these guarantees has a price: the
payment of federal income taxes.
Statehood advocates, like myself, sought to explain during
the plebiscite campaign that the responsibility to pay
federal income taxes will be a benefit, and not a burden, for
many low-income residents of Puerto Rico. This is because
many of our taxpayers would qualify for the Earned Income
credit for low-income wage earners.
Given the filing in the House of the Young bill, along with
the initiation of a Congressional examination of Commonwealth
status, we anticipate that the stalemate will not continue
indefinitely.
I am convinced that once the people of Puerto Rico clearly
understand the options, they will vote decisively for
equality, that is, to be come the 51st state.
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