Bruce Westerman: “Our neighbors in Puerto Rico are American citizens. They are afforded the protections under the Constitution of the…”

“Our neighbors in Puerto Rico are American citizens. They are afforded the protections under the Constitution of the United States. I am from Arkansas. Arkansas was a territory at one time. There is a process for becoming a State. The American citizens in Puerto Rico deserve the respect to have a process that has actually been thought out, that has been debated, and that gives them an opportunity to enter statehood in a way that is more common to the way other States have entered. This bill is not that. This bill has serious problems with it. We are right here at the end of Congress. To me, this just looks like a political ploy as we are waiting to pass a massive spending bill before we go home for Christmas and start the new Congress. Madam Speaker, in closing, it is obvious there is bipartisan support for Puerto Rican self-determination. That is not the issue. The issue is the process, and this is a bad process. If this is so important to the majority, then I ask: Why today? Why today? Less than 20 days before this Congress ends and Democrats transition to the minority, why bring this bill today? Was there not time in the past 4 years to have hearings on this bill, to have other committees look at this bill? But yesterday, we get notice of an emergency Rules Committee meeting to consider this bill that all of a sudden is so important, but it wasn't important, certainly not in this Congress.…”