Bipartisan support is building in Congress for legislation aimed at putting Puerto Rico on the path to statehood.
Pierluisi’s Puerto Rico Status Resolution Act hinges on a proposed federally sanctioned “yes” or “no” vote on statehood in Puerto Rico.
The bill has garnered 51 co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives, up from the 30 who had signed on before Pierluisi presented the legislation less than two weeks ago.
Pierluisi, a national Democrat and Puerto Rico’s sole representative on Capitol Hill, said his aim was to top 50 co-sponsors before the congressional recess that started last weekend.
“Our demand for equality is resonating in throughout the U.S.,” Pierluisi said. “Members of Congress from Florida to California are responding to our call to establish a process for Puerto Rico to gain admission as the 51st state.”
The measure proposed in the House of Representatives would ask Puerto Rican voters, “Do you want Puerto Rico to be admitted as a state of the United States?” A majority vote for statehood would trigger a 180 deadline for the president to certify the results of the plebiscite and lodge legislation in Congress to admit Puerto Rico as a state the union “on an equal footing” with other states.
Click here to read the Puerto Rico Status Resolution Act:http://www.cb.pr/pdfs/statehood_bill.pdf
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