[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6832]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      PUERTO RICO HAS SAID ``NO''

  (Mr. GUTIERREZ asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Today we are going to have Puerto Rico as the 51st 
State bill. They're going to say it's a Puerto Rico self-determination 
bill, but really it's designed to get one thing and one thing only, and 
that is to have the people of Puerto Rico accept statehood for 
themselves.
  It seems to me when I checked the history books, in 1967 there was a 
plebiscite. They said, ``No.'' In 1993 Puerto Rico had a plebiscite. 
They said, ``No.'' In 1998 they had a plebiscite. They said, ``No.''
  Millions of people are trying to get into this country, trying to get 
to America. We have 4 million American citizens, and they said, ``No.'' 
Why don't we respect their wishes? Why do we have to have this 
artificially crafted bill which has as a predetermined objective 
statehood for Puerto Rico? It's wrong.
  We should not impose statehood or any other alternative on any 
people, especially when they said, ``No, no, no.'' Just so that we get 
it clear, it's spelled the same in English as in Spanish, N-o. No, no. 
So there shouldn't be any problem here in terms of understanding just 
what the people of Puerto Rico have said.

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