Transition Plan May Tip Puerto Rico Toward Statehood

For the first time since the United States captured Puerto Rico as war booty 99 years ago, there is growing momentum in Congress to invite the small Caribbean territory to become the 51st state.

Key House and Senate lawmakers on Wednesday unveiled proposals to decide the status of Puerto Rico once and for all, for the first time committing themselves to a transition plan if islanders opt for statehood or independence.

Such a commitment may be all that the 3.8 million residents of Puerto Rico require to tilt the popular vote there in favor of statehood. For many islanders, who are U.S. citizens by birth, the luster of the 45-year-old commonwealth has dimmed with the phasing out of special tax breaks and dwindling federal outlays.

Although statehood has been dangled periodically before Puerto Ricans by successive U.S. governments, it has never been formally offered by the U.S. Congress. Today, enthusiastic statehood advocates - led by a popular governor and a well-connected Washington representative - voiced hopes that Puerto Rico’s decades-old identity crisis was coming to an end.

“Next year, Puerto Rico will commemorate its 100th year as a U.S. colony,” said Rep. Carlos Romero-Barcelo, the island’s nonvoting member of Congress. “Should we celebrate or should we mourn? … The United States cannot seek to promote … democracy elsewhere in the world while it relegates 3.8 million of its own citizens to an indefinite second-class status.”

Under their current commonwealth status, Puerto Ricans pay no federal income tax but have no vote in Congress.

Advocates of the status quo criticized the new proposals as biased in favor of statehood. The House measure, for example, would mandate island referendums every four years until Puerto Ricans choose either independence or statehood - making the status quo seem unacceptable.

“This is not a balanced bill,” said Anibal Acevedo-Vila, the president of the Popular Democratic Party. “This bill has a severe tilt. It is actually a statehood bill and as such is unacceptable.”

He said that Puerto Ricans have twice supported the commonwealth in plebiscites, most recently in 1993, with 48 percent choosing the commonwealth, 46 percent opting for statehood, and 4 percent seeking independence.

But many island-watchers believe the tide has turned and that Puerto Ricans will be enticed to join the union if they are guaranteed entry.

President Clinton has opened that door, vowing to back whatever option the Puerto Ricans choose. And Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., is among the 60 co-sponsors of the House bill.