8/8/2019 10.21.10 (The Status--2011)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/102110-the-status-2011 1/4

The Status: 2011 In Citizenship Equality , Commentary and Analysis ,  Enemies of Equality ,  H.R. 2499 , Puerto

 Rico , Puerto Rico Democracy Act  ,Self-Determination , Tennessee Plan , The Big Lie: The PPD's"Commonwealth" on October 21, 2010 at 12:31 AM 

 H.R. 2499¶s Failure in Congress and Its Success in Puerto Rico-  Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi (D-PR) hasconfirmed to El Nuevo Dia that once the

  President¶s Task Force on Puerto Rico Status (Task Force) releases its report at the end of  December, the territory¶s New Progressive Party (PNP), pro-statehood government will begin

the necessary work to carry out a local (not congressionally sanctioned) plebiscite, which meansa vote could happen by mid-2011. During the roundtable with various Spanish-speaking 

newspapers and news agencies, Res. Comm. Pierluisi expressed his support for the White House¶s work on the Puerto Rico status, although the administration postponed to December the

release of the report, which was due in October. The territory¶s sole (non-voting) representativealso expressed his contentment with the administration¶s reestablishing its commitment to the

 status issue.

  Puerto Rico¶s representative in Washington specifically said that ³Once the White House recognizes the status options available to [Puerto Rico], we will be ready to carry out the

next plebiscite in the island.´

  A day before the Resident Commissioner¶s remarks, President Obama (during his own pressconference) restated his administration¶s commitment to ending the citizenship inequality that exists in Puerto Rico. Although the President has also said that his principal focus is on the

 status of the territory, the Task Force has been charged with immediate economic development of the island²regardless of whether the status gets resolved or not.

The comments by Res. Comm. Pierluisi and the President, are the latest in the status debate inthe ³H.R. 2499 Era.´ The Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2009/10 (H.R. 2499) began as the most 

bipartisan effort on Puerto Rico¶s status, only to see its Republican (and some Democratic)

8/8/2019 10.21.10 (The Status--2011)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/102110-the-status-2011 2/4

 support in the House erode in the hours before the final vote in the lower house. It passed the  House with a comfortable margin, but only after it came really close (four votes close) to

capitulating to a motion to recommit, which would have sent it back to committee never to be seen again.

  A year after having been introduced in the House, H.R. 2499 was handed to the Senate for 

consideration, where it was received by the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources withthe usual senatorial disdain; the bill died before it arrived in the upper house²or at least once it entered the chamber, who knows? What we do know is that senators could not find ³consensus´

on the measure to move it out of committee and into the full senate.  Although Res. Comm. Pierluisi¶s bill did not make to the President¶s desk, the work that the

 House Committee on Natural Resources and many other devoted members of the chamber did onbehalf of H.R. 2499¶s passage cannot be understated. As such, the Resident Commissioner must 

walk a fine line between encouraging his New Progressive Party about a locally sanctioned   status plebiscite, and keeping with the letter of the bill his peers did report out of the House

(post-Foxx Amendment H.R. 2499). The reason is that the Resident Commissioner still has twomore years in office because he is the only member with a four-year term, and he will need 

 friends when he goes back .This is a tough spot in which to be for Res. Comm. Pierluisi. After all, H.R. 2499 in its original 

  form was a (just) stroke of genius. As introduced, the bill did three important things in thehistory of the ³status´: 1) it separated the permanent, sovereign options (i.e. independence and 

 statehood) from the non-permanent, territorial option of ³Commonwealth´; 2) because of (1), it allowed the ³Commonwealth´ a chance to vie for continued existence through a democratic

majority vote; and 3) because of (2), it placed an eight-year cycle on the ³Commonwealth´ status so that voters in Puerto Rico could only extend the status quo temporarily (because the

territorial status cannot be permanent).That was on May 19, 2009; a year later, however, things had changed²H.R. 2499 had changed.

  Although the bill surmounted many frivolous obstacles and underwent a few insignificant changes (e.g. Congress mandated bilingual ballots and put the financial burden of the plebiscite

on Puerto Rico¶s government), it lost its originality on the status question (and its likely solution)when the House adopted the Foxx Amendment. The effect of the amending motion upon the bill 

arguably might have made it viable and likely to succeed out of the House, but it turned it into auseless bill fit for recommittal²and even withdrawal in conspicuous protest.

 Post-Foxx Amendment, H.R. 2499 became an instrument of perpetual obstruction because it nowasked the Americans of Puerto Rico to first vote on whether they wanted to change the current 

(³Commonwealth´) territorial status, and then included the status quo in the second round of voting²you know, the round that was supposed to give Puerto Ricans a permanent solution. All 

that, with the added bonus of legitimizing the ³Commonwealth´ status once again as a possible permanent option.

8/8/2019 10.21.10 (The Status--2011)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/102110-the-status-2011 3/4

 Cynicism was not the only reason for the drastic change; instead, it was a combinationof cynical congressional paternalism ,ignorant political calculus  , and ill-willed irrational 

 policymaking at their best.The prevailing argument against H.R. 2499 was that it was not ³fair´ because it separated the

³Commonwealth´ option from the statehood and independence options in a supposed attempt to

³stack the deck´ in favor of statehood. While it is true that under the original terms of H.R. 2499  Puerto Rico would have most likely been on track to statehood than to independence, theessential aspects of the status matter need not be ignored once that ³conclusion´ has been

reach.  For example, whether statehood (or independence for that matter) ³appears´ like the likely

³winner´ upon the letter of the bill, we need not forget that the ³status problem´ is the³Commonwealth´ status , and that any permanent option¶s winning is what victory in the status

  problem looks like. Is that not what Congress, the President, all parties in Puerto Rico, theUnited Nations, Castro and Chavez all want? Why, then, should Congress mix two distinct status

classes (i.e. permanent non-territorial and non-permanent territorial) in any plebiscite? Aminority of Puerto Ricans cannot be allowed to hold the status issue hostage to progress.

Concurrently, there should have been no problem with granting Puerto Rico¶s ³Commonwealth´ supporters an opportunity to extend temporarily the territorial status if (and only if) they could 

 garner a simple majority. Supporters of equality for the four million American citizens of Puerto Rico detest the idea of extending the territorial status any further, but given the fact that the only

way that could happen was through a majority vote, we were satisfied that this was ³the right way.´

 H.R. 2499 in its original form might have failed in Congress, but the Puerto Rican electorateapproved it long before that occurred. In fact, Governor Luis Fortuño and Res. Comm. Pierluisi

8/8/2019 10.21.10 (The Status--2011)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/102110-the-status-2011 4/4

campaigned on the plan; they won by the largest margin in Puerto Rico politics. Their slogan:³Every vote for the New Progressive Party is a vote for Statehood.´

 Now, the Americans of Puerto Rico must accept the consequences of their stalled efforts for self-determination. A Congress that cannot pass a bill that will certify the permanent  status options

  for Puerto Rico that most everybody understands are available (i.e. statehood and 

independence); a White House that insists on promoting territorial economic development to thedual detriment of equality and²ironically²true (democratic) economic development; an ever-  growing series of political parties vying for their own (detached from constitutional reality)

versions of a permanent status; and the vast majority of Americans in the states not having aclue as to what all of this means²all place the legislature of Puerto Rico in the unenviable

 position to take the lead in solving this problem, finally.

 As such, the territory¶s legislative

chambers should implement their own recipe for status success; one bolder than the original 

 Pierluisi bill. H.R. 2499 may not have had ³consensus,´ but it enjoyed an abundance of equityand moral fortitude. If the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) did not like H.R. 2499, it should like

the legislature¶s new plan even less. The plebiscite that will ultimately be carried out in Puerto Rico should not look like H.R. 2499. It ought to take out any concessions made to the enemies of 

equality, mainly the promotion and promulgation of the ³Commonwealth´ status as a viable permanent option.

 Any plebiscite in which the people of Puerto Rico are asked to vote for legitimate, permanent, sovereign options should (and will) be welcomed by all sides; it just has to be done! H.R. 2499¶s

  failure in Congress and the ostensibly weak-on-substance report expected from the Obama Administration¶s Task Force should not deter supporters of self-determination in the Puerto Rico

legislature from instituting what they think will, once and for all, rid Puerto Rico of its colonial history and pseudo-democratic ³Commonwealth´ status.