Gov. Pedro Pierluisi: ‘Puerto Rico will be the first truly Hispanic state’

[GMDino]

Well is there is a majority for it and they can find a way to do it this might really be happening.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/gov-pedro-pierluisi-e2-80-98puerto-rico-will-be-the-first-truly-hispanic-state-e2-80-99/ar-BB1efupw

Quote:SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to meet with White House officials and advocate for a new bill that charts a path toward statehood for the American territory.

The push to make Puerto Rico the 51st state follows a referendum last year in which 52.5% of voters on the island said they are in favor of permanently joining the American union as a state. Though detractors worry the island would potentially lose some of its cultural identity, for Pierluisi that is not a concern.



To the contrary, he says: “Puerto Rico will be the first truly Hispanic state.”

The bill is one of several initiatives the island’s new governor is pushing at home and in Washington aimed at finding long-term solutions to the myriad problems facing the U.S. territory.

Pierluisi took office Jan. 2 at a time when the island is facing multiple crises: the pandemic, multibillion-dollar debt, a series of earthquakes still rattling the island, as well as ongoing recovery from Hurricane Maria, which killed thousands and demolished critical infrastructure.

In his first month, the governor declared two states of emergency: one to combat gender violence and another to address Puerto Rico’s steep fiscal bind.

The governor sat down with the Miami Herald to speak about the issues dominating his first 100 days in office. Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What can you tell us about your trip to Washington?

A: So far so good. Actually today is the 104th anniversary of the American citizenship of Puerto Ricans. We’ve been American citizens for more than a hundred years. Yet, we do not have equal representation in Congress, and cannot vote for president and vice president. That’s not democratic.

I came to Washington because today our resident commissioner and Congressman Darren Soto of Florida introduced a bill providing a straightforward process for Puerto Rico to become a state.

The way the bill works is that once Congress approves the bill, then in Puerto Rico we’ll hold both a referendum reaffirming our wish to become a state and an election of, in my calculation, four representatives and two senators.

Fifty-one co-sponsors for the bill. That speaks for itself. That tells you that this bill will get traction in Congress. It got bipartisan support.

Q: How likely do you think the bill is to pass?

A: This is the first time that we had an up or down vote on statehood. We had never done this. We were courageous enough to do it. And it was a vote against all odds. This was during the Trump administration. And we had no offer or commitment on the part of Congress.

So this is the first time that Congress faces something like this.

Some of the detractors talked about Puerto Rico having the economy in recession, the government facing a bankruptcy process, but they forget that by and large, most if not all of the territories that became states did so when their jurisdictions were underperforming.

I have no doubt the House will approve this bill. We’ll have a tougher fight in the Senate, but we’ll fight that fight and we’ll go one by one convincing members of the Senate to join our cause.

I do believe that it’s like an alignment of the stars in the sense that you have a Congress controlled by the Democratic Party, along with a president who belongs to the same party. I’m positive about this.

Q: In Puerto Rico, the government operates in Spanish. In no state is the legislature conducted in a language other than English. What would happen under statehood?

A: We do have two official languages, and our goal should be for Puerto Ricans to be fully bilingual. English has really become the dominant language of the world. And as a matter of personal advancement, knowing English is for the better of anybody. Puerto Rico is no different.

I would be the first one who would have no objection to having two counterparts for the bills, for the executive orders. So you have an English and a Spanish version for each. Gradually ... people will be able to debate in both English and Spanish depending on their fluency. And we’ll use interpreters as needed.

But that shouldn’t be an obstacle. In fact, I think that one of the main assets that Puerto Rico brings to the nation (is) its cultural identity, its heritage, its customs, its manners, its way of living, our history. We enrich the nation. Puerto Rico will be the first truly Hispanic state.

Q: For residents of Puerto Rico, what would change under statehood?

A: Statehood is not (a) panacea. But definitely, the odds would be that we would do much better if we get equal treatment in federal programs such as Medicaid. Our health system is underfunded. The treatment we’ve been getting from the federal government is really atrocious.

Then in other programs, like for example nutrition, again, we’re underfunded. It’s night and day, the difference. It would be like a 40% increase in nutrition assistance for our people.

Just having that powerful representation in Congress I know would make a difference. And voting for the president and vice president as well, because presidents barely come to Puerto Rico. I know if we could have the right to vote, they would be visiting us regularly, like they do to Florida.

So that’s the aspiration. It is a legitimate aspiration. The difference is basically being treated fairly.

Q: Has the Biden administration offered a timeline on when and how it plans to make Hurricane Maria emergency aid available?

A: They have been extremely receptive. We were facing all kinds of restrictions in the use of (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) funding. And I complained about a grant agreement that was signed by the former governor that was too onerous.

This was my first call with White House staff, and within days they basically decided to authorize the disbursement of roughly $6 billion dollars of the funding and at the same time, they said they would revisit the grant agreement. In fact, I understand they’re even reconsidering the necessity of having a monitor at our housing department.

So all kinds of things are happening and this is because the Biden administration has a different attitude altogether in dealing with Puerto Rico. They simply want to expedite matters.

Q: One of your first acts as governor was to declare an emergency of gender violence.

A: Local feminist groups, women’s rights groups, were asking this for years and it was about time. The male chauvinism that we’ve had in Puerto Rico we need to put a stop to. The femicides we had last year, each and every one of them, is regrettable, and we should put a stop to it. Gender violence in general, discrimination because of gender identity, discrimination because of sexual orientation, should be stuff of the past.

I want Puerto Rico to be known for being inclusive, for being a place in which we respect each other, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation and where women can live in peace and contribute to our Island, like they have, but without having to face the obstacles and the discrimination and the harassment and the violence they have faced for too long.

Q: What is your metric of success for this executive order?

A: One of the areas where the committee needs to work on is statistics to make sure that we have relevant, reliable statistics to measure our progress. What I want to see happening here is that within a year, year-and-a-half, the plan issued by this committee is in execution. I also want to see a considerable reduction of domestic violence in Puerto Rico, of gender violence in Puerto Rico. What percentage in terms of the reduction? I cannot say at this point, but I want this to be dramatic, significant. Unless I see that, I’m not going to feel that we’re making progress.

Q: What has been your administration’s most important moment so far?

It’s been two months, but it feels like six months. We haven’t stopped and we’re moving fast on all fronts.

The main challenge is to do well in terms of dealing with this pandemic; hopefully, to get to a new normality by the end of the summer or early fall so that our businesses start flourishing again, the tourism sector of our economy comes back. So the pandemic is the first thing and we’re devoting a lot of time and effort to dealing well with it.

On the other hand, our education system has been under heavy constraints. This concept of remote learning in the public school system is quite challenging. We didn’t have computers for kids and students for too long. They got them just by the end of last year, early this year.

I saw that private schools, a lot of them, were using digital computer systems to keep the learning process going forward. But in the public system I knew that wasn’t a reality for many, so I decided to authorize the reopening of schools on a gradual and partial basis as of March 1.