[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 56 (Tuesday, May 3, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H2787]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             PRESIDENTIAL VOTE FOR RESIDENTS OF PUERTO RICO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Puerto Rico (Mr. Fortuno) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FORTUNO. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the United States Court of Appeals 
for the First Circuit will hear the case of Gregorio Igartua-de la 
Rosa, et al., vs. United States of America. This landmark case deals 
with the right of U.S. citizens who reside in Puerto Rico to vote for 
the President and Vice President of the United States.
  The right to vote for those who govern us is a hallmark of the 
democratic principles on which our Nation was founded. Universal and 
equal suffrage is not only a core value of this Nation's political 
system, but has been recognized by the international community as a 
fundamental civil right. Despite this broad consensus in favor of the 
right to vote, U.S. citizens who reside in Puerto Rico have for 88 
years been denied the right to vote for the U.S. Government officials 
who make and administer the Federal laws to which they are subject.
  Take special heed of the fact that this discriminatory and 
undemocratic state of affairs does not just apply to Puerto Ricans, who 
are U.S. citizens by virtue of having been born in a U.S. territory, 
but to any U.S. citizen who becomes a resident of Puerto Rico.
  To clearly illustrate this point, if President George Herbert Bush, 
our 41st President, had chosen to retire in Puerto Rico instead of 
Texas, he would not have been able to vote for his son, our current 
President, George W. Bush. If any of my colleagues who are listening to 
me today and who are my colleagues in the 109th Congress elected to 
move to Puerto Rico after they retire from Congress, they would not be 
able to vote for the President of the United States.
  This separate and less-than-equal class of U.S. citizenship for 
residents of Puerto Rico has placed the 4 million U.S. citizens who are 
residents of Puerto Rico in an indefinite denial of equal national 
citizenship, particularly at a time of national sacrifice in the cause 
of global democracy and freedom, where Puerto Ricans have contributed 
equally, many even making the ultimate sacrifice.
  It is not my intention to dictate what the Court of Appeals for the 
First Circuit will decide. As a lawyer, I have always been respectful 
of the separation between the legislative and judicial branches of 
government, but I trust that the court will do us justice.
  I invite all of my fellow Members of this 109th Congress to monitor 
the court's decision because, in so doing, they will be exposed to the 
fact that the central problem facing the citizens of Puerto Rico is 
that they have been denied their most basic rights of self-
determination, not by court decisions, but by congressional inaction.
  In 1899, the United States first entered into a treaty which provided 
that the civil rights and political status of the residents of Puerto 
Rico shall be determined by the Congress. A full century has passed, 
but Congress still has not implemented any political resolution 
procedure that will enable residents of Puerto Rico to determine their 
form of self-government under a non-colonial, non-territorial 
alternative.
  As most of my colleagues know, I am a firm believer in statehood for 
Puerto Rico, but I fully respect the right of my countrymen to freely 
choose the status choice of their preference, be it as a State of the 
Union, an independent Republic, or as a Republic associated with the 
United States.
  The important element has to be that all viable alternatives be non-
colonial and non-territorial in nature. Until this process of free 
self-determination is completed, Congress will not have fully 
discharged its responsibility.

                          ____________________