Monday, October 29, 2007

H.R. 900: Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2007 Update


Two little updates:

This bill was considered in committee which has recommended it be considered by the House as a whole. Although it has been placed on a calendar of business, the order in which bills are considered and voted on is determined by the majority party leadership.


Apparently, also, there was a change of language such that the Governor of Puerto Rico now has the option of either doing the follow-on plebiscite that was planned before (independence or statehood) should the greater than 50% vote take place or he can call a constitutional convention. There were complaints that the vote was stacked for statehood. (Really?!)

This was screamed and shouted for by the so-called 'Enhanced Commonwealth' crowd, if I understand correctly. Their hope would be that when the original vote takes place that they can be in place in the governorship to try to muscle their way into the convention and control it. The problem being that the Enhanced Commonwealth - really a code phrase (if I may abuse that term) for an independent nation with all the subsidies from and freedoms of free access to the United States. This has been called unconstitutional by virtually every bit of the US government whether its been staffed by either party. I would guess that they are going to try to run the convention to try to get what they want. Never mind that the whole kit-and-caboodle would get dumped. They are, right now, an unincorporated territory which means that they have little or no say in a lot of things. Congress does. We'll see if this doesn't end up a stupid boondoggle now. I seriously hope not.

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