[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 28 (Tuesday, February 23, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H659-H660]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




WHY ARE CITIZENS IN THE TERRITORIES DENIED WHAT ALL OTHER CITIZENS ARE 
                              GUARANTEED?

  Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to stand before you as 
we return from the district work session. The impeachment trial is 
officially behind us, and the Nation is ready for congressional action. 
The American people expect us all to work together in a spirit of 
cooperation and bipartisan so that we can renew national confidence for 
a strong and unified America. It is now time to set aside the 
differences that have divided us along party lines and work together 
for the good of the country.
  Yesterday we commemorated George Washington's birthday, an 
everlasting model of leadership and achievement, 200 years ago, as our 
first President ably led the United States from revolution into 
democracy.
  Today, there are many issues that claim congressional attention for 
immediate action, including specific improvements for Social Security, 
education, greater access to health care, employment, taxes, the 
environment and economic opportunity and prosperity.
  Our Nation faces many challenges on the eve of the millennium, but 
inherent in those challenges are a great many opportunities. Our Nation 
has flourished during this decade and right now, as we face the new 
millennium, the most appropriate message we can provide to all 
Americans is to express our commitment to the fundamental values of our 
democracy.
  As new initiatives to benefit American citizens, immigrants and the 
children of undocumented immigrants in the country are developed and 
implemented, I do not see the same concern for the 3.8 million United 
States citizens in Puerto Rico. The Americans in the island continue to 
be neglected and discriminated against by being barred from equitable 
participation in the most fundamental rights of citizenship, the right 
to vote and the right to representation, not to mention participation 
in the safety net programs that provide basic relief to the neediest in 
the Nation, the disadvantaged, the aged, the handicapped and the 
children.
  It is distressing to behold that, by virtue of living in a territory, 
some American citizens do not have the same rights and benefits as all 
other Americans in the Nation. Why are citizens in the territories 
denied what all other citizens are guaranteed? Are there two different 
kinds of citizenship in our Nation, the example of democracy?
  What is even more discouraging is that not only the great 
expectations for future success and equal participation do not apply to 
Puerto Ricans in the islands but that residents in the island will 
continue to lag further and further behind as they are fenced out from 
the rest of the Nation.
  Throughout my political life, I have fought to provide equality for 
the United States citizens in Puerto Rico and I wonder how our Nation 
can continue to maintain separate but equal policies similar to the 
discriminatory policies that were the force that brought about the 
enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  I am compelled to provide a voice for the thousands of low income, 
disadvantaged, the handicapped, elderly and children who are deprived 
of the most basic safety net programs that all other Americans and 
immigrants can participate in the 50 States of the Union. It is 
terrible to consider that our Nation's commitment to equality in health 
does not extend to the American citizens in Puerto Rico or in Guam or 
in the Virgin Islands and thus deprives us of the necessary medical 
care that may prove the difference between life and death by virtue of 
the fact that we reside in a territory. Health discrimination is an 
abomination.
  This includes Medicaid, for which Puerto Rico, contrary to the policy 
for all other States, receives a block grant capped this year at $171.5 
million. I am also talking about our exclusion from supplemental 
security income, the supplemental income that ensures blind, 
disadvantaged and handicapped individuals have income protection. I am 
also talking about Medicare and how reimbursement for providers has 
been set at a lower rate despite the fact that

[[Page H660]]

costs are comparable to the provision of services in many States.
  Unfortunately, as the Nation benefits from the tremendous budget 
surplus, the Americans in the territory will also be excluded from many 
of the most significant policy initiatives presented this session.
  The $500 billion Social Security enhancement proposed by the 
Universal Savings Accounts, commonly referred to as the USA accounts, 
will not apply to the citizens in the island, even though we contribute 
to Social Security equally as all other citizens. What is more, money 
from our contributions to the Social Security funds will be used to 
manage and administer the program which will be denied to us.
  But this initiative is just one of the many new proposals that will 
not apply to the nearly 4 million U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico. Many 
other proposals, ranging from welfare to work, to building new schools, 
to providing incentives to workers and even the empowerment zones and 
the new market initiatives that aim to simulate the economic, will 
bypass us in the next century. We will not have the opportunity to 
contribute to the well-being of the economy nor participate in the tax 
credits that are being proposed.
  Mr. Speaker, I feel compelled to bring these matters to your 
attention and to the attention of all my colleagues in Congress, 
because our Nation must do something to ensure that the American 
citizens in Puerto Rico are equal Americans. How can our Nation stand 
as a model for the world when it maintains a policy of discrimination, 
a policy of economic and political apartheid?
  For 100 years, we have stood shoulder to shoulder as we have defended 
freedom and democratic values wherever and whenever it has been needed 
in the world. As we enter the millennium, we should not be pushed 
behind our fellow citizens in the 50 States. It is a national shame 
that in our country American citizens must time and time again beg to 
be given equal access to the programs that will promote economic 
prosperity, health and well-being.

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