Sunday, November 11, 2012

Puerto Rico: Statehood and status

Fuerte San Felipe del Morro, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
H.R. 3024 requires a referendum to be held by December 31, 1998, on Puerto Rico's path to self-government either through U.S. statehood or through sovereign independence or free association. It requires the President to submit to the Congress for approval legislation for: (1) a transition plan of at least ten years which leads to full self-government for Puerto Rico; and (2) a recommendation for the implementation of such self-government consistent with Puerto Rico's approval. It sets forth specified requirements with respect to the referendum and congressional procedures for consideration of legislation. - one of many phony federal initiatives for determination of Puerto Rico's status, this one from Don Young of Alaska in 1997

There has been a fair amount of talk regarding the vote in Puerto Rico for statehood in a referendum held in its most recent election (Puerto Rico votes on the same calendar as the U.S. presidential election.) The claim is Puerto Rico votes for statehood for the first time:

For the first time in their history, a majority of Puerto Ricans expressed support for U.S. statehood in a non-binding referendum on the future of the island's relationship with Washington. [...] Just over 61 percent of voters favored seeking to make Puerto Rico the 51st state, while 33.31 percent supported an enhanced commonwealth arrangement and just 5.53 percent were in favor of full independence.
There are a couple of problems with this take: (1) the status quo was not among the choices in the statehood portion of the referendum and (2) Puerto Rican support for statehood is largely irrelevant'the United States is not close to offering statehood to Puerto Rico.

The history of non-binding referendums and Congressional action and inaction regarding statehood for Puerto Rico is instructive here. So, without further ado, a little history.

In 1967, Puerto Rico held a  non-binding referendum on status and commonwealth won with 61 percent of the vote. Support for statehood grew to close to 40 percent. Subsequent votes showed support for the status quo eroding, in 1993 it was 48.6 percent commonwealth, 46 percent pro-statehood, in 1998, it was 46.6% percent pro-statehood, 50.4 percent none of the above.

In the meantime, the political status of Puerto Rico was barely considered in Washington. Certainly legislation was proposed, due in most part to lobbyists and fundraising on behalf of certain legislators like Don Young and Bennett Johnston, but no serious consideration was ever given to admitting Puerto Rico as a state.

And of course every President names a task force that submits the same report, based on the same Congressional Research Service conclusions (PDF).

And then, nothing happens. The most recent results simply are not going to change that, in my opinion at least. Let's explore why on the flip.


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