Roland Gutierrez: “today there will be a rule taken up on the Young bill, a bill that is supposed to deal with the self-determination of…”

“today there will be a rule taken up on the Young bill, a bill that is supposed to deal with the self-determination of the people of Puerto Rico. It is really a statehood bill. It is a bill that will guarantee statehood. In 1993, as many of my colleagues remember, the people of Puerto Rico had a plebiscite, independence, Commonwealth and statehood. We all remember the headlines, the headlines read blaring across our Nation, Puerto Rico rejects statehood. Now we are going to come back 5 years later, and since they lost it that time, we are going to write a statehood bill to make sure that that is the option. It is wrong. I am going to give everybody one example. My father did not see me until I was 1 year old. The reason was because he was serving in the Armed Forces of this Nation. He was born on the island of Puerto Rico. He served in the Armed Forces of this Nation. Under the bill we are going to consider tomorrow, we are going to state that my father's citizenship is statutory. Now, when my father goes and votes, and he likes the Commonwealth, he disagrees with his son about a lot of things, and that is one thing we disagree about, he is going to want to vote for a Commonwealth. He served in the Armed Forces of this Nation, an American citizen. When he goes to vote, Mr. Speaker, the only thing that is going to guarantee him his American citizenship is statehood. You want an election that is going to guarantee a false vote, that is going to be tomorrow.…”