Pedro Pierluisi

This approach has broad support in Congress.

I strongly believe that there ought to be fiscal responsibility on the part of the territory.

Whether we demand equality or not, it is the Congress and the President's duty, as leaders of the world's greatest democracy, to put an end to this inequality and denial to participate in our Nation's democracy.

as long as Puerto Rico remains a territory--without equal treatment under Federal programs, forced to borrow heavily to make up the difference and without the ability to vote for the national leaders who regulate our economy--the island…

Congress has authorized each state government to permit its insolvent municipalities to adjust their debts under Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code, but has not authorized Puerto Rico to do so.

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.

You have the power to help Puerto Rico now; exercise it! You have the moral obligation to end the trite pilgrimage of Puerto Ricans looking for the status question to be resolved; move forward.

Yes, the permanent solution to Puerto Rico's economic problems, social problems, is equal rights, is equality.

Puerto Ricans have only me, a Resident Commissioner. I can debate, I can speak, but I cannot vote on the Floor--and I represent 3.5 million American citizens.

Congress cannot in good conscience criticize Puerto Rico without acknowledging the fact that Congress shares culpability for the territory's problems.

Yet, instead of open democratic self-determination, the ideological faction clinging to the status quo insists on obstructing the will of the people.

When I am in a position to utilize this funding, I will do so without hesitation.

Yes, we are tired and increasingly upset by being denied the right to vote for our President, and the right to elect two Senators and Members of Congress that we would be entitled to as a state.

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

The Federal Government cannot say that we "remain, as it is today, subject to the Territory Clause of the U.S. Constitution" in order to deny Puerto Rico the powers to solve our economic and social crisis, and now turn around and say they…

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

As a co-sponsor of the Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act, I am persuaded that the island's territorial status is a cause of its economic conditions.

Puerto Rico is treated unequally under Medicaid and Medicare.

Puerto Rico would be receiving billions of additional funding that would flow into our economy if we become a state.

We are, as a matter of fact, the world's last colony with more than 1 million (1,000,000) inhabitants.

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

Puerto Rico's status is intolerable, and my constituents will no longer tolerate it. We want equality under the American flag, and we will settle for nothing less.

Yet, here we are in 2015, and instead of open democratic self-determination, the ideological faction clinging to the status quo insists on obstructing the will of the people as so clearly expressed in the 2012 plebiscite.

If Congress takes no action and the colonialist PPD prevails in Puerto Rico's 2016 election, the undemocratic bankrupt territory of extreme dependency will continue to breed support for statehood.

If the U.S. Government and its people do not realize soon Puerto Rico is a problem that needs to be addressed with new thinking and new approach, the United States will soon wake up with a new domestic crisis with international…