Puerto Ricans may soon be asked to make a momentous decision that could turn their commonwealth island into the 51st state of the American union.

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, is expected to introduce a bill this week that would granting Puerto Ricans a referendum on the island’s future status.

Puerto Rico has enjoyed a special relationship with the United States as a commonwealth since 1950, and residents have rejected a change in status in previous plebiscites. This time, critics say, the proposed referendum has been carefully crafted to push the statehood option through.

The Puerto Rico Democracy Act (HR 2499) is sponsored by Pedro Pierluisi, the Democratic Party commissioner in Puerto Rico to the US Congress. While Pierluisi says the referendum would be non-binding, critics say a US congressional seal of approval might make the transition to statehood unstoppable.

The Puerto Rico Statehood Students Association (PRSSA), which advocates Puerto Rico’s self-determination and “the enhancement of US citizenship through statehood”, is so confident that the bill will go through the House with ease that it is already seeking support from US senators.

“No other representative has ever garnered as much support for self-determination as Congressman Pierluisi,” said Raúl Vidal, president of PRSSA. “Because of this, we feel absolutely confident in attaining House passage and have decided to focus our time and resources on informing Senate members of the importance of self-determination and the virtues of this bill.”

The bill is not without its opponents on the US mainland. “While the bill is technically non-binding, in the sense that no legislation binds future Congresses from changes, it is hardly morally non-binding,” wrote Tim Schultz, director of government relations for US English in National Review Online.

“Puerto Ricans are born with US citizenship, and Congress would scarcely react to a vote for statehood in a congressionally sanctioned election with a shrug. If Congress issues what amounts to an invitation to vote for statehood now, only to change the terms of the deal later, it would be a slap in the face of American citizens that would draw international outrage.”

The Washington Times said in an editorial: “Rigging an election is nice work if you can pull it off. That’s what the Democratic majority in the US House of Representatives appears to be trying to do as it votes on the misleadingly named Puerto Rico Democracy Act, which is designed to confer statehood on the island commonwealth by hook or crook.”

The Times said that, because Puerto Rico leans towards the Democratic Party, “congressional Democrats pine after the two new senators and perhaps six new House members who would be added to their caucus if statehood passed. The Democrats’ solution is ingenious – and underhanded”.

The newspaper suggested the wording of the referendum was designed to confuse Puerto Ricans into opting for statehood rather than the status quo. It added that there was “nothing wrong with letting a free people occasionally reanalyse their governing status. Everything is wrong with dishonouring that free people by rigging the very democracy statehood is meant to celebrate”.

In the National Review Online, Shultz pointed out a language barrier to the granting of statehood to the island: “The deeply rooted preference for Spanish makes Puerto Rico’s 1993 elevation of English to ‘co-official’ status practically irrelevant … Congress should condition statehood on making English the sole official language, which would still allow Spanish translations for a population in transition while insisting on acceptance of the lingua franca of the Union”.

Dammit I just got finished on a detailed database of American states before releasing my new commerce site. Why it sucks is because it's alphabetic and numbered, I'll have to move all the numbers down once I stick US-PR in there.

What's funny is that I remember saying "its not like there will be any new states anytime soon" because I was thinking that if there was I'd have to renumber them. Yet it's just my luck right after I finish BAM we got Puerto Rico about to become a state.

The only thing I'm worried about is if Puerto Rico becomes a State in a shady way is that the independence fringe group will end up being similar to the IRA.

At a time when “English Only” advocates in Congress insist Puerto Rico should drop Spanish as one of its official languages as a condition for statehood, Senate Majority Leader Roberto Arango asked the U.S. House to make the island a state, sending a letter plagued with grammatical errors.

The letter was the target of jokes by radio listeners Friday who noted that English writer William Shakespeare was probably in shock in his grave or that Arango is probably working secretly as an English teacher in the island’s public schools.
Arango, who attended private schools and has a college degree, emphasized Puerto Rico’s merits and historical background in the letter, which also included wrote errors in fact.
“Puerto Rico has been under the influence of the United States since July 25,1898 when the first U.S. Soldier enter the island shores. Puerto Rico’s development under the tenure of United States is noticeable, being unquestionably the Caribbean only developed country. Puerto Rico although not a state of the union, has developed under the same administrative and governmental parameters of any other State. With an executive, Legislative and Judicial branch that not only mimic that of any other estate, but that is intricately inserted in the administrative and government establishment of the United States,” he wrote in the letter which was obtained by the Daily Sun.
In the letter, dated March 8, Arango emphasized that that all of the federal agencies have offices in Puerto Rico and the island’s role in the U.S. military: “In terms of military, Puerto Rico does not have armed forces, and Puerto Ricans have been serving in the U.S. Armed forces for the past century. In fact more than 400,000 Puerto Ricans have been drafted and serve in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and more recently Iraq,” he wrote.
He said many federal agencies supervise local agencies, noting that: “As well as the Federal Aviation Administration oversees the administration of the International Airports of which Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport.”
He made a list of some of the U.S.-based businesses that are operating in Puerto Rico but included some that are not even on the island, such as the Olive Garden Restaurant chain.
While explaining that the local banks operate in a similar fashion as those in the United States, Arango wrote: “With a solid banking system insured and administer by the FDIC and a stock exchange and financials being oversee by the SEC Puerto Rico have been the recipient of U.S. investments for decades.”
Instead of informing the U.S. House that the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture is the agency in charge of preserving the island’s national culture, he said that: “Even our heritage is preserved by the United States government Park Services.”
In describing the island’s infrastructure, he said “We enjoy thousands of kilometers of highways, first class convention centers, a metro system and museums that are second to none.”
Arango lamented that Congress has unilateral powers over Puerto Rico and that it can repeal the U.S. citizenship enjoyed by Puerto Ricans since birth. He urged Congress to examine the repercussions of taking U.S. citizenship away from Puerto Ricans contending that, “In the one hand it would be short of unconstitutional, but it would spark a massive immigration to the continental U.S. ...”
Arango finished his letter asking the House representatives to exercise leadership in making Puerto Rico a state. “They say that leaders are man and women of their time. I invite you to make history ...,” he wrote.


Editor’s note: The Daily Sun published Arango’s letter verbatim.

Just imagine the boost that it would give to the flag makers.

OK, so which American president(s) never saw a new state added to the map in his lifetime? Note that I didn't say during his "term in office"... rather during his entire lifetime. The answer: only one president holds that honor: Barack Obama. Every other president lived through the addition of at least one new state. Insignificant trivia? Maybe. But adding new states was long a part of the American psyche. Now we live in a different America. Or do we?