I urge the Department to continue budgeting resources for the national network of LCCs.

I encourage both of you to visit Puerto Rico as soon as possible.

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.

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.

Puerto Rico cannot resolve its status by maintaining the same undemocratic status that my people have endured since 1898.

This is the most Democratic Nation in the world and you cannot ignore that vote. You need to respond to that vote.

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.

It's about time you start speaking frankly to the Puerto Rican people.

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…

As American citizens we in Puerto Rico are entitled to equal rights, privileges and benefits as well as equal duties and obligations as all other American citizens and as American citizens we are entitled to the right to vote for our…