Puerto Rico Democracy Act – Legislation Biased in Favor of Statehood

Brian Darling / April 27, 2010

According to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the House will vote on H.R. 2499, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act, later this week.  The legislation provides Puerto Rico a two stage voting process and makes some non-resident Puerto Ricans eligible to vote on Puerto Rican statehood.  This legislation has rigged the process in favor of making Puerto Rico the 51^st state and is not a fair way to force statehood on a Commonwealth whose people may not want it. Furthermore, this may be an expensive proposition for the American people who are already on the hook for approximately $12.9 trillion in national debt.

This bill attempts to rig the voting process and denies the American people a real say on the issue of whether they want to allow Puerto Rico to be granted statehood.  The fact of the matter is that Puerto Ricans have rejected statehood numerous times and this bill seems to have been written in a way to fast track statehood without a majority of Puerto Ricans favoring the idea.  Furthermore, the people of the United States should be allowed a vote on whether they want to admit Puerto Rico as a new state.  If the people of Puerto Rico can vote, the people of the United States should have a vote.

The legislation contains many questionable provisions.  First, the legislation sets up a voting process rigged for success.  The legislation sets up a preliminary vote and the voters are given two options.  If a majority of Puerto Ricans vote in favor of changing the status of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to “a different political status,” then a second vote would be scheduled to poll voters on the following three options: (more…)