Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi is eagerly awaiting a statehood bill he says will enter the House “at the latest” sometime next month following “considerable support” from lawmakers.
“What I anticipate is that there will be considerable support for a statehood bill in this Congress,” he told Axios in an interview released on Sunday. “I believe you’ll see bills being introduced in the House at the latest by mid-March of this year — so, soon, within a month.”
“I have gotten calls from members of the Senate inquiring about this issue and exploring it,” he said.
In November 2020, residents in Puerto Rico voted 52% to 48% in favor of becoming a state. Pierluisi said that “Congress is morally obligated to respond” to the narrow results, and he insisted that the move to become a state would be a “game changer.”
“We need a game changer in Puerto Rico. And one game changer would be that we get equal treatment in key federal programs,” he said. “Statehood is not a panacea. Of course, we have to do better. But there’s no question that having two senators and four representatives in Congress batting for us when needed would make a difference.”
Delaware Democratic Sen. Tom Carper in late January reintroduced a bill to make Washington, D.C., a state. The proposal, which serves to add senators, representatives, and an additional star on the United States flag, would grant congressional standing to the area that voted 92% in favor of President Biden during the 2020 election.
“Our nation’s capital is home to more than 700,000 Americans who, despite our nation’s founding mantra — ‘no taxation without representation’ — pay their share of taxes without full voting representation in either chamber of Congress,” Carper said of the bill, which has been criticized as a way to bolster Democratic strength in Congress. “In fact, despite paying more in federal taxes per capita than citizens of any of the 50 states, D.C. residents have no say in how those taxes are actually spent. This isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue. It’s an American issue because the lack of fair representation for D.C. residents is clearly inconsistent with the values on which this country was founded.”
Pierluisi said he supports statehood for both Washington, D.C., and his home island.
“I don’t want to compete with D.C. I’m all for D.C. statehood,” he said. “So I just want the star [on the American flag]. I don’t care about the number. So long as it happens and it happens soon, I’ll be more than pleased.”
In 2017, Puerto Rico voted in favor of statehood, but its efforts were not moved forward during former President Donald Trump’s administration, which saw a Republican majority in both the House and the Senate.
