You have the power to help Puerto Rico. Now you must exercise it.

We ask Congress to end this tax abuse, and eliminate Section 933 of the Internal Revenue Code immediately.

We ask that you present a Puerto Rico statehood admission bill with the above terms and others that are considered fair.

I firmly believe that statehood, economically, is not the alternative.

Puerto Rico has been denied these tools far too long, and as long as our options are defined by the powers of this Congress, we will always be at your mercy.

Mr. Chairman, the citizens of Puerto Rico are outraged by these shameful tax benefits given to a few hundred millionaires, while the rest of us have been subject to multiple tax increases by the present Administration in the last 3 years.

I firmly believe independence is not the right economic answer to our situation.

The almost 4 million disenfranchised U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico count on your support to secure our equal rights and responsibilities.

Regarding the status issue, as you well know, statehood won the 2012 plebiscite.

I believe that we need to sit down and come up with a new economic arrangement.

In order to attain that, there ought to be, in my opinion, number one, a process by which majority rules in the territory.