Vote Opens The Door To Puerto Rico Statehood Measure Barely Passes House; Future Unclear
One hundred years after Puerto Rico was seized by the United States, the House by the narrowest of margins voted Wednesday night to allow the Caribbean island to choose to become the 51st state, remain a commonwealth or split off into an independent country.
The bill passed 209-208, with the one-vote margin illustrating the complexity of an issue that has divided Puerto Ricans for decades and left many members of Congress scratching their heads about the implications of a state of Puerto Rico.
Even with the House’s approval of a plebiscite among Puerto Ricans, the status of the Spanish-speaking island, annexed during the Spanish American War, remains as unsettled as ever.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., has indicated that it is unlikely the Senate will consider similar legislation this year, a sentiment probably enhanced by the closeness of the House vote. And Puerto Ricans themselves, proud of both their heritage and their ties to the United States, are intensely divided on the best course for their homeland.
In 1993, residents of the densely populated island 1,000 miles southeast of Miami indicated by a narrow margin that they preferred to remain a U.S. commonwealth. In the non-binding vote, commonwealth status won 48 percent of the vote, statehood was backed by 46.2 percent and independence won support from just 4.4 percent.
That difference of opinion was obvious Wednesday, with the four members of the House of Puerto Rican descent split on the legislation. Democrat Carlos Romero-Barcelo, the island’s nonvoting delegate in the House, and Rep. Jose E. Serrano, D-N.Y., favored the plebiscite, while Reps. Luis V. Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Nydia M. Velazquez, D-N.Y., argued that Puerto Ricans already had spoken in favor of remaining a commonwealth.
The House bill, which was endorsed by the White House, calls for an islandwide vote by the end of this year. Then, based on the results, Congress and the president would set up a process for either statehood or independence in coming years. If commonwealth status were to win, Puerto Ricans would continue to vote on the issue every decade.
“Finally, this has become a national issue,” said Romero-Barcelo . “The more the people of this nation look at this, they will see it not as a Puerto Rican problem but an American problem. How can we have 3.8 million disenfranchised Americans?”
With hundreds of Puerto Ricans following the proceedings from the visitors’ gallery, lawmakers rejected a contentious amendment offered by Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon, R-N.Y., that would have declared English the official language in Puerto Rico and the rest of the country - even though just a quarter of Puerto Ricans are fluent in English.
House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, D-Mo., called that proposal “a slap in the face of the people of Puerto Rico.”
As a bipartisan alternative, lawmakers agreed that it is “in the best interest of the nation for Puerto Rico to promote the teaching of English” and that the island ought to teach English language proficiency to students by the age of 10.
Puerto Rico has been a U.S. territory since 1898. Congress voted citizenship for Puerto Ricans in 1917. In 1952, it became a commonwealth, an in-between status.
Debate steered clear of the many economic implications of statehood. As much as 40 percent of the island’s economy is based on a special exemption that allows U.S. manufacturers to avoid paying any federal tax on profits there. As a state, it could lose that exemption.