By Jose Fuentes Agostini
Casting further doubt on continuity, task force Co-Chairman Tom Perrelli, representing the U.S. Department of Justice, punted they would “take a fresh look” at the status issue.
After 110 years of U.S. sovereignty over Puerto Rico, Congress has before it a comprehensive record, compiled over the last two decades, compellingly supporting legislation for the first ever federally recognized referendum in Puerto Rico, on the question of that U.S. territory’s future.
For decades Congress has grappled with vexatious local politics in the territory, and in frustration deferred action on a series of bills to enable a long overdue democratic self-determination procedure. Without action by Congress there will be no end to more than a century of political limbo for 4 million Hispanic American citizens in Puerto Rico, the last large and populous U.S. territory.
The most recent bipartisan self-determination bill introduced in Congress has 123 Democrat and 58 Republican sponsors. H.R. 2499 does not bind Congress to any status outcome, but allows the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico democratically to express their aspirations among status options Congress accepts as legally valid and politically feasible.
The statehood and independence parties support a federally sponsored status vote along the lines of H.R. 2499, but the local commonwealth party continues to demand that its proposal for “improved commonwealth,” selectively combining features of statehood and independence, be included on any referendum ballot.
For good reason, Congress has rejected the “improved commonwealth” proposal of 60 years, and inclusion of that “fantasy island” option in past local status votes predictably produced inconclusive pluralities, impeding any viable solution to the lack of equal civil and political rights under Puerto Rico’s current territorial status.
To enable informed self-determination on legally valid options, it is crucial for Congress to enact H.R. 2499. For the same reason, it is imperative that President Obama keeps his promise, made during the 2008 Democratic Party primary in Puerto Rico:
“I am absolutely committed to making sure that Puerto Rico has the right to…self-determination when it comes to status…and that’s why it’s so important for us to really pay attention to providing a mechanism for that final status to be determined…I’m committed to doing that…in my first term…setting up a procedure whereby the people of Puerto Rico can make this final decision.”
The best road map for President Obama to keep that promise is a presidential executive order creating “The President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status,” signed by President Clinton in the year 2000. Based primarily on sound legal analysis by the U.S. Department of Justice the Bush Administration White House issued two non-partisan task force reports that achieved the principle goal of Clinton’s directive, which was,
“…to clarify the options to enable Puerto Rican to determine their preference among options for the island’s future that are not incompatible with the Constitution and basic laws and policies of the United States.”
Instead of seeing through a process that is on track, by ensuring continuity based on the merits of existing White House policy, the Obama Administration seems about to derail status resolution for Puerto Rico.
The troubling signs go back to Obama’s 2008 press interviews in Puerto Rico, when he hedged his bets and told reporters any status option proposed by a major local political party should be on the ballot, or the referendum would appear “bogus.” In Puerto Rico that is code for including “improved commonwealth” on the ballot, which ironically is precisely what made all past local status votes bogus!
Since its status proposals won’t withstand constitutional scrutiny, the smart play for the commonwealth party and its allies is to keep demanding inclusion of “improved commonwealth” in H.R. 2499, knowing it won’t be accepted by Congress, and then employ all available passive and active means to kill H.R. 2499.
Of course, the smartest play of all for opponents of H.R. 2499 is to simply change the subject from status to other issues. That is what commonwealth party leaders have always tried to do, so they had to be pleased when the executive order defining the task force’s mission was amended by President Obama in October of 2009, enlarging its mission to include federal policy in Puerto Rico on energy, environment, education, labor and economic development.
The re-tasked task force made its public debut in March of 2010, traveling to Puerto Rico for public meetings choreographed to shift the focus away from status. The clear message in public sessions broadcast island-wide in Spanish and English left no doubt that the Obama Administration is focused on a broad range of issues, among which status is but one. The task force even admonished witnesses and speakers to address issues other than status. Casting further doubt on continuity, task force Co-Chairman Tom Perrelli, representing the U.S. Department of Justice, punted they would “take a fresh look” at the status issue.
The inconvenient truth for the Obama Administration was that the public audience and invited speakers overwhelmingly stuck to the status issue. The clear grass roots message back to the Obama White House is that progress and success on all other issues in the federal-territorial relationship will be impeded until here is a federally recognized process for self-determination.
Now that the Obama Administration appears to have backed away from his 2008 campaign promise in Puerto Rico, and his task force members refused to take a position on H.R. 2499, the smart play for those who support self-determination for Puerto Rico now is to make sure their support for H.R. 2499 is heard loud and clear in Congress, and hope the White House gets the message.