Pedro Pierluisi

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…

I represent more U.S. citizens--3.6 million--than 42 senators.

The current status has now lost its Democratic legitimacy to the extent that the people of Puerto Rico ever consented to this status, such consent has been withdrawn.

For the first time ever, this is important.

In closing, I want to make this point. ... it is more important for me to secure justice for my people than it is for me to be polite.

Let's make sure that nobody is left out, nobody who wants to support a valid option. The current statute call it the Commonwealth is one option.

The wish of the American citizens who voted on this question was clear: Congress should admit Puerto Rico in the Union on an equal footing with all the other states.

On November 6th, Puerto Rico withdrew its consent to territory status. The federal government must respect--and respond to--the democratically expressed will of its own citizens.

Moreover, territory status gives the Federal Government license to discriminate against Puerto Rico.

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.

Self determination is a choice among options that can be implemented not an exercise in wishful thinking.

As a Puerto Rican, as a Hispanic American from Puerto Rico and as an American citizen, I feel outraged at the fact that the CRS report completely sidesteps the issue of discrimination against Hispanic Americans in Puerto Rico.

No, I do not believe that that creates much confusion.

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

I'm not pro-statehood that will make Puerto Rico a Latino ghetto.

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

I have to protect the right of the pro-independence people to have their option on the ballot.

It should come as no surprise, given our lack of political power, that the federal government often uses that license.

I think that's fairness.

Simply put, statehood, for American citizens, is the American way.

That's absolutely right. So I will withdraw my amendment. But let me just say that, again, this is one property. It's only one property out of thousands of properties facing these circumstances. So I hope we can work it out. It's not going…

As we approach the birthday of the late Dr. Jose Celso Barbosa, the father of the statehood movement in Puerto Rico, I rise to update my colleagues on the progress that has been made to resolve the territory's political status. Last…

I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment. The text of the amendment is as follows: At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following: Sec. __. None of the funds made…

This budget-neutral amendment, which I offer with Mr. Young of Alaska, would enable DOD to remove unexploded ordnance from land in Culebra, Puerto Rico, which was used as a military training range for seven decades. In 1974, Congress…

It's a very risky approach to a complicated problem and could cause great harm to communities everywhere.