Jenniffer González offers an update on the Law on the Status of Puerto Rico

Press Release

The resident commissioner, Jenniffer González Colón, offered an update on the legislative process regarding H.R. 8393, Law on the Status of Puerto Rico.

"The United States Congress begins its annual legislative recess this Friday afternoon and is expected to resume on Tuesday, September 13, where the discussion of such transcendental measures as the federal budget for the following fiscal year is expected to begin. In the process of reconciliation of the budget measure that occurs in the Senate, it is likely that the lower House will meet to approve some measure before the proposed date.

On July 15, 2022, the Law on the Status of Puerto Rico was filed and it was approved in the Natural Resources Committee on July 20, 2022. Record time to file and approve a measure in committee. It is still pending that the report be filed by the Committee so that the measure is placed on the legislative calendar and according to the leadership, announce when it would be seen in plenary. Before going to the plenary session, the measure must be evaluated before the Rules Committee, where amendments submitted by congressmen are also evaluated. The measure and any pertinent amendments are then passed to the full House for debate and vote.

The Chamber has thousands of measures presented by the 431 congressmen who vote, in addition to the 5 delegates and the resident commissioner. In addition, the Chamber must evaluate measures sent by the federal Senate to become law before the recess of this session.

This week, prior to the last primary elections before Congress resumes its legislative session, it considered at least 40 bills, and also received from the Senate the CHIPS Act, a priority measure for national security that encourages semiconductor companies to build electronic chip or conductor plants in the United States.

I do not anticipate that the measure will go down to a vote in the tight legislative calendar these days, much less without a report and the pending process. Therefore, we will continue working in the additional time to continue seeking support for the measure that currently has authors from both parties. This week we received the support of representatives of the island in D.C. who continue to seek support for the measure and the governor will also receive him today in D.C.

Those who seek to misrepresent the facts, trying to project a triumph of immobility to delay the decolonization of Puerto Rico, become part of the colonial problem. Their minds colonized and clinging to the electoral fund of the island for an electoral support to political parties in ideological decline, are an astonishing shame. They only serve to want to perpetuate inequality for Puerto Ricans and deny them full access to federal programs and the full development of our people. They are the same as always who prefer to govern a territory for their personal interests and submit our island to the decisions of others and not the future as American citizens with all rights.

Those who always want Puerto Ricans to be less because their self-esteem is small. The time to take action is now. Tracción has this bipartite measure that had never been conceived in Congress and that lays the foundations for a decolonization process that only brave and serious people are willing to give," said González Colón.

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