    [Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 10, 2018)]
    [House]
    [Page H88]
    From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                  PUERTO RICO'S SHADOW DELEGATION TO CONGRESS

      The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from
    Puerto Rico (Miss Gonzalez-Colon) for 5 minutes.
      Miss GONZALEZ-COLON of Puerto Rico. Mr. Speaker, today, after almost
    120 years under the American flag, Puerto Rico remains as a colony of
    the United States, or under the Territorial Clause, to use the
    constitutional term.
      Our residents are subject to a second class citizenship. For all
    these years, the Federal Government has denied equal rights to all
    Puerto Ricans who have, in war and peace, made countless contributions
    to our Nation; who have bravely fought in every conflict since the
    Great War, defending our democratic values, yet they are being denied
    the right to vote for their Commander-in-Chief and have full
    representation in this Congress.
      A large number of them have made the ultimate sacrifice, and when
    they do, their casket is flown back, covered in an American flag with
    50 stars, and without the one representing them.
      Puerto Rico has experienced long-standing inequities under Federal
    laws, which now the whole world has been able to witness firsthand
    following the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria.

                                  {time}  1030

      Before that, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans have already
    rejected this discrimination, choosing, instead, to buy their equality
    with a one-way airline ticket to Florida or simply changing their State
    ZIP Code.
      Without the equal rights and responsibilities that are only available
    through statehood, Puerto Rico will never truly recover and prosper
    from the hurricane effects. That is the reason we demand and deserve
    statehood for Puerto Rico now. The islands overwhelmingly voted for
    statehood in 2012 by a margin of 61 percent, and in June of last year,
    97 percent of the islands voted again for statehood.
      That is the request that brought me here. That is what brings, today,
    the Governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rossello, Puerto Rico Senate
    President Thomas Rivera Schatz, House Speaker Johnny Mendez, and all
    other elected officials from the island who have come here to witness
    today's historic introduction of the Puerto Rico shadow delegation to
    this Congress. That delegation will demand that the United States
    recognize the will of the people of Puerto Rico to become a State.
      This long-awaited action is in accord with the precedents set forth
    by the Tennessee Plan, adopted by the territories of Tennessee,
    Michigan, Oregon, California, Iowa, Kansas, and Alaska, which followed
    a similar path to eventual admission as States.
      It is my honor to introduce this delegation of seven members--three
    Republicans, three Democrats, one Independent, divided into two
    Senators, five Members to the House--as we become a State.
      Pedro Rossello, former Governor of Puerto Rico, serves as the chair
    of the delegation; Carlos Romero Barcelo to the senate, former Governor
    and a former Member of the house; Luis Fortuno, former Governor and a
    former Member of this House; Zoraida Fonalledas, Puerto Rico national
    committeewoman and businesswoman; Charlie Rodriguez, State chairman for
    the DNC and former senate president; Alfonso Aguilar, president of the
    Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles; and Ivan ``Pudge''
    Rodriguez, a Major League Baseball player inducted into the Hall of
    Fame.
      Puerto Rico has come to this House today to claim the American Dream
    and to fulfill its destiny, to obtain equality within the Nation, and
    to unleash our full potential. Statehood will make Puerto Rico
    stronger, but we, together, will make the United States a more perfect
    Union.

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