Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Washington for yielding and for leading on this issue. Mr. Chairman, I want to just add to this discussion and deliberation that what really happens here is that if this should pass today, and I rise in opposition to H.R. 2499, Mr. Chairman, but it sets up a momentum, it sets up a level of expectations, and the sequence of events being the question that would go before Puerto Ricans and those who were born in Puerto Rico that would live in any of the other 50 States presumably, do you want to stay the same or do you want to change? And once that decision is made, then there is no going back. The momentum then washes over the dam. And the next question that comes back is, now you can't be what you were before. Now you have to decide between being an independent country or a free association, whatever that might be, or statehood. And when we get to this question of statehood and I look at the standards that have been there in the past, I disagree with the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young). I can go up there and English is the language that is used in government and business and everywhere you go. Yes, every language you can imagine is spoken of in every State, but the practice in Puerto Rico is Spanish, not English. Eighty-five percent of Puerto Ricans will self-profess that they are not proficient in English. They have very little understanding of English.…”