Later this month, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, is expected to increase the odds that Puerto Rico will become the nation’s first Hispanic state by stealthily getting the Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2009 (H.R. 2499) before the House of Representatives on the suspension calendar.
H.R. 2499 authorizes a federally mandated plebiscite on whether Puerto Rico should remain a commonwealth, become a state or become an independent nation in association (or not) with the United States. A majority of Puerto Ricans have never favored statehood, but the voting scheme in H.R. 2499 is designed to guarantee that statehood finally wins.
When Puerto Ricans voted on their status in 1993, commonwealth status got 48.6 percent of the vote, statehood got 46.3 percent, and independence got 4.4 percent. The statehood party tried again in 1998 and failed, with just 46.5 percent of the vote.
To get around the inconvenient fact that most Puerto Ricans do not want statehood, H.R. 2499 splits the vote into two rounds. The first round calls for a yes-or-no vote on the current commonwealth status. This setup is meant to allow the pro-statehood and pro-independence groups to gang up on the commonwealth option and defeat it. With commonwealth thwarted, the bill limits the second round to the remaining options, within which statehood is the clear favorite.
Few in Congress, including sponsors of the bill, have either the time or the interest to see through the apparent innocuousness of H.R. 2499 and discover its true anti-democratic nature. It is a beautifully simple scheme, nicely cunning and sneaky.
JOSE A. HERNANDEZ MAYORAL
Secretary of federal and international affairs
Popular Democratic Party
San Juan, Puerto Rico
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