You cannot solve the problem of our status by including the very option that was rejected by our people.

What the pro-statehood party is asking you, Chairman and this committee, is to be accomplice of that Democratic crime, crime against democracy.

In the 21st century, in the most democratic nation on earth, this is astonishing.

The Puerto Rican electorate served notice last November that they do not wish to continue being governed in the way and through the institutions and laws that, by their own accord, govern them currently.

Discussion of status is a way to ignore and to keep ignoring the real issue: denial of voting rights, denial of participating in our nation's democratic process and denial of economic equality and opportunities for Hispanic Americans in…

There should be no dispute in this Senate or in Puerto Rico that in response to the results of the plebiscite, this Senate should proceed to approve an enabling act to admit Puerto Rico to the Union.

We are proud American citizens. If you poll in Puerto Rico whether people want to continue having their American citizenship, it's going to be like 80 or 90 percent again.

The bill provides that the President shall submit an admission bill admitting Puerto Rico as a State within the period of 180 days.

a YES or NO plebiscite for statehood is to be held.

By definition when you pose a question that's a yes or no question you're not excluding anybody...

It is a basic issue of democracy, which requires representative government--a right we lack at the national government level.

It is fundamental: whether Puerto Ricans will continue to be Americans and obtain equality within the country or become the people of a separate nation.

Congress has unintentionally enabled a minority in Puerto Rico to confuse and frustrate a local decision among Puerto Rico's status options.

Let's make sure that nobody is left out, nobody who wants to support a valid option. The current statute call it the Commonwealth is one option.

The wish of the American citizens who voted on this question was clear: Congress should admit Puerto Rico in the Union on an equal footing with all the other states.

On November 6th, Puerto Rico withdrew its consent to territory status. The federal government must respect--and respond to--the democratically expressed will of its own citizens.

Moreover, territory status gives the Federal Government license to discriminate against Puerto Rico.

To expect the administration to feel the same urgency to produce positive results for Puerto Rico as it does for the states is to substitute hope for experience.