Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

This Act may be cited as the ‘Puerto Rico-United States Bilateral Pact of Non-territorial Permanent Union and Guaranteed Citizenship Act’.

Congress recognizes Puerto Rico as a nation legally and constitutionally, with a political status and relationship with the United States on the basis of the following governing provisions:

Upon agreement by Congress to recognize a unalterable bilateral pact with provisions described in section 2 by approval of this Act, the following terms for its implementation shall apply:

(7) The United States shall maintain its authority and responsibility for matters of defense. This shall include responsibility for the defense of Puerto Rico and its people, in the identical manner that the United States and its own people are defended. The United States may deny or limit military or strategic access to the land and waters of Puerto Rico by any other foreign power, and keep the military bases or other installations presently operating in Puerto Rico, such as the National Guard. In the case of Vieques, the legitimate claims of its residents shall be given full and fair review on a priority basis. Any additional need for military base rights shall be considered or agreed to by way of specific separate accords.

(8) A common market shall continue to exist between Puerto Rico and the United States; therefore, the trade of goods and services will continue between both countries.

(9) Puerto Rico shall continue to have the right to use United States currency as official currency of Puerto Rico.

(10) The people’s self-government emanates from the Commonwealth; therefore, the people of Puerto Rico retain all the powers not delegated to the United States. Federal laws having to do with defense, currency, United States citizenship, social security, medicare, unemployment insurance, banking and brokerage, postal service, and social and educational aid programs or assistance for veterans are delegated to the United States.

(11) International relations functions are delegated to the United States only in the areas consistent with United States powers under the unalterable bilateral pact and Commonwealth as recognized under this Act.

(12) Areas of special cooperation between the United States and the Commonwealth shall be identified, wherein powers shall be shared to the benefit of both peoples.

(13) United States citizens who live in the Commonwealth are protected by all the rights, privileges, and immunities conferred upon them by the United States Constitution and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

(14) The Federal programs that afford social and educational benefits directly to the residents of Puerto Rico (such as Pell Grants, ‘Programa de Assistencia Nutriciaonal’ (Nutritional Aid Program), and school loans) shall remain in force, governed by the applicable Federal and State standards. The United States acknowledges that Federal programs for veterans, social security benefits, medicare, and unemployment benefits are acquired rights for which workers and their employers have made, and shall continue to make, the corresponding contributions for such Federal programs.

(15) With the aim of advancing Puerto Rico’s economic development, and considering the present and future relations between Puerto Rico and the United States, the United States shall provide the Commonwealth an annual block economic allotment, with corresponding inflationary adjustments, so that the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico can continue to offer social benefits, develop its public works, infrastructures, and incentives for the opening of jobs, and to foster its social and economic growth. The parties shall also identify those areas of economic growth that can be addressed by joint action in order to create jobs, including special incentives programs for investment on the island.

(16) The Commonwealth shall control its international trade and establish a policy that will foster its maximum economic growth. For such purposes it shall have the capacity and authority to enter into trade and tax agreements with other countries, consistent with the common interest in defense and security of Puerto Rico and the United States.

(17) The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico may execute agreements and belong to regional and international bodies, consistent with the common interest in defense and security of Puerto Rico and the United States. The United States shall endorse Puerto Rico’s participation or membership in agreements and institutions to which this paragraph makes reference.

(18) The United States shall transfer the lands it owns in Puerto Rico on the date of the enactment of this Act to the Commonwealth, except for those that are used for common defense or that are necessary to perform the powers delegated to the United States in accordance with this Act.

(19) Puerto Rico and the United States shall establish other special areas of cooperation, with the aim of guaranteeing the quality of life of Puerto Ricans, and to foster from the collective experiences of both their peoples institutional and sectorial development of both peoples. In the area of orderly, serene, and harmonious development with both peoples’ cultures, spiritual, psychological, and economic nature, Puerto Rico and the United States are hereby bound to cultivate joint strategies in drug traffic control, regulation of communications, prevention of illegal immigration, mutually beneficial environmental protection, and solidarity with international precepts, including an advanced state of fair employer-employee relations in the workplace, disaster relief, shared technological innovation in agriculture, medicine, pharmacology, criminal justice, and other fields of natural and social sciences, as well as the humanities.

(20) The United States Federal district court in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico shall entertain matters that arise from those provisions of the Constitution of the United States that are applicable in Puerto Rico, from the provisions of United States statutes that apply to Puerto Rico, consistent with

(21) In negotiations between the parties under this Act, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico will be represented by a negotiating committee comprised of 3 members appointed by the Governor and confirmed by 75 percent of both houses of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico. At least 2 of the 3 members of the committee must believe in the political philosophy set forth in the Commonwealth formula as recognized under this Act. The United States shall be represented by a 3-member negotiating committee appointed by the President of the United States.

(22) In the event a controversy is not resolved though negotiations between the parties, the issue shall be submitted to a dispute resolution commission. The commission shall be created, comprised of 5 members, 2 appointed by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and 2 appointed by the United States, and a 5th member to be appointed by the majority of the 4 members representing the parties. The 5-member commission shall designate a president among themselves.

(23) The bilateral pact, as agreed and developed under this Act, shall have the force and effect acknowledged by constitutional and international laws in effect, as a bilateral agreement that recognizes rights and delegates powers, based on mutual consent, and which may not be unilaterally withdrawn or altered.

(24) In addition to the recognition and reaffirmation of Commonwealth under this Act, upon approval of any proposal by Puerto Rico to further develop Commonwealth by the people of Puerto Rico, a constitutional convention may be assembled. Said convention shall, on behalf of the people of Puerto Rico, negotiate with the United States the additional terms and conditions of the association between Puerto Rico and the United States, as well as the specific written instrument of said agreement. Said constitutional convention may not adopt proposals that undermine or void the mandate of the people of Puerto Rico or that may undermine the percepts of common citizenship, market, currency and defense, or against Puerto Rican national identity.

(25) The constitutional convention shall design and propose to the United States Government a mechanism for the specific, prospective consent on the application of legislation passed by the United States Congress after the adoption of an agreement on this matter under this Act, as to such legislation as the People of Puerto Rico want to apply to them.

(26) The people of Puerto Rico shall elect a Resident Commissioner to represent Puerto Rico before the United States Government, and who shall be considered as a Member of the United States House of Representatives as regards any legislative matter relating to Puerto Rico. The Resident Commissioner shall also represent Puerto Rico before the executive branch of the United States Government.

(27) The constitutional convention shall have representation in Puerto Rico’s 2 main political parties; therefore they may nominate candidates who shall comprise the convention.

(28) Once any agreement to develop Commonwealth further is negotiated and approved by the United States and the constitutional convention, it shall be in force and effect after it has been approved by the people of Puerto Rico. Any further modification of the terms of the agreement shall have to be approved by the people of Puerto Rico, by means of a special voting process in conformity with its democratic institutions and processes.

(29) The constitutional convention shall not be authorized to alter, modify, amend or change the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

(30) The symbols, flag, and hymns of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico shall be the symbols, flag, and hymns that are in effect on the date of the enactment of this Act.

(31) The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico shall retain the capacity to subscribe to cultural, educational, and scientific and sports agreements.

The governing provisions for Commonwealth set forth in section 2 alter existing Federal law in order to establish the necessary elements of a legal definition of the political status of Puerto Rico on a basis not subject to the power of Congress over territories under article IV, section 3, clause 2 of the United States Constitution. If a court of competent jurisdiction enters a final judgment on the merits that is no longer subject to appeal, which alters, limits, or impairs the Commonwealth formula set forth in the governing provisions of section 2, or prevents establishment of Commonwealth as a relationship that is not territorial, whether such judgment is based on Federal statutory or Federal constitutional grounds, or which determines that any provisions of section 2 and section 3 or implementing measures thereunder violate the United States Constitution, then the provisions of this Act are null and void and of no effect, and Puerto Rico will thereupon continue to be governed in accordance with the Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act (64 Stat. 319) and Federal law applicable to Puerto Rico as of the date of the enactment of this Act.