[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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