Resident Commissioner is Recognised for her Work with the Human Quality Award

Press Release

The resident commissioner, Jenniffer González Colón, was recognized by the 2021 Ponce Awards, for her delivery, work and results in public service with the Human Quality award.

The awards took into account the impact of the work carried out by González Colón, as a congressman, which includes ensuring that over 1.2 million citizens have medical coverage and food aid, as well as expanding opportunities for small businesses by making federal aid accessible; obtain resources for recovery, mitigation and infrastructure improvements among others.

"The work I do for my people in Puerto Rico I do with passion and dedication. It has not been easy being the first female Resident Commissioner, but having convincingly revalidated, having been the woman with the most votes in the last four elections and the person with the most votes in the last two, added to this recognition, fills me with It is a great satisfaction to know that one is on the right track and that the people recognize this work. It is a great responsibility and honor to be the only representative of all of Puerto Rico before the federal government and for my people we have achieved many things and there is still a lot of work to be done, but with great enthusiasm," said González Colón.

The Ponce Awards are determined by its Board of Directors, chaired by Chris Albert Santos, where they annually recognize the effort, social work and service of citizens with an impact on the Stately City under the categories of Music, Art, Civics, Social Work and Service to the People.

For its twelfth edition, there were 30 winners, including the resident commissioner, who on that occasion could not attend the gala due to commitments related to veterans' health work in Puerto Rico. The award was recently delivered to the commissioner at her office in Congress.

González Colón has received multiple recognitions for her work over the years, including as resident commissioner she has always been among the first 25 congressmen out of 437 members of the United States House of Representatives, with the greatest willingness to work as a team.

Annually, The Lugar Center and Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy publish the Bipartisanship Index, which measures how often a member of Congress introduces bills that attract co-sponsors from members of the other party, and how often they co-sponsor a bill introduced by the other party.

In her first year as a congresswoman in 2017, the commissioner was ranked number 19 and on average during the 115th Congress she was ranked number 22. For 2019 she rose to position number 9 and on average for the 116th Congress, she was ranked number 11, to work in a bipartisan manner on the introduction of federal legislation.

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