Statehood for Puerto Rico and DC?

[Politesse]

I despise the way we discuss Puerto Rico exclusively on terms of electoral politics. Our pretense at democracy is such a transparent lie.

 

[Worldtraveller]

I despise the way we discuss Puerto Rico exclusively on terms of electoral politics. Our pretense at democracy is such a transparent lie.

Yeah, but it's pretty much been that way since day one.

 

[lpetrich]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Today was Puerto Rico Advocacy Day in DC
Here’s what we’re fighting for:
1. Full audit of Puerto Rico’s debt
2. Cancellation of PR’s debt
3. End La Junta and establish oversight accountable to the people
4. A #GreenNewDeal to rebuild PR https://t.co/VVNCYPL6qR" / Twitter

AOC claims that PR's debt is illegal and the result of Wall Street profiteering. She also says that it is important to act as a movement, that no one person can do it. Not even herself, as I'm sure she would agree. Hopefully eventually leading to self-determination for the island.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Y aquí tratando en Español y Spanglish (fue un poquito difícil ¡perdón!) https://t.co/xGUCWaRM7C" / Twitter
(Google Translate) And here trying in Spanish and Spanglish (it was a bit difficult sorry!)
With an embarrassment(?) emoji. Her audience helped her out a bit with her Spanish version of these four demands.

D.C. statehood hearing: Republicans sound off against the District as too corrupt, financially insecure to be a state - The Washington Post
Dems launch longshot bid for DC statehood at rare hearing, as Republicans hammer local corruption | Fox News
Democrat accuses GOP of opposing DC statehood because of 'race and partisanship' | TheHill
Mayor Muriel Bowser: "LIVE: #DCStatehood Congressional Hearing" - about 3 hours long

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing Thursday on legislation introduced by Norton that would shrink the seat of the federal government to a two-square-mile enclave, encompassing the White House, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court and other federal buildings. The rest of the District would become known as the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth.

At the hearing, Republicans argued the District is too corrupt and financially dependent on the federal government to be a state.

...
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said making the District a state would give Democrats an undue advantage because the city’s diverse and politically liberal electorate is likely to elect two Democratic senators, increasing the party’s influence.

In other words, it's socialism.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) told Bowser she wanted one of the American flags that feature 51 stars, which the city hung from lampposts along Pennsylvania Avenue this week.

...
Massie said the boundaries could force congressional staffers to park outside the downsized capital, giving the new state too much leverage over the federal government.

“This is the ridiculousness you get into when you try to draw a federal city into a teacup,” he said.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "DC was the 1st territory in the United States to free the enslaved.
It’s where Black Americans fled the tyranny of slavery & towards greater freedom, to DC. Yet today it’s where 2nd class citizenship reigns, and the right to vote is denied.
It’s time to recognize DC statehood. https://t.co/AkfaRHw38C" / Twitter

She is correct. Ending Slavery in the District of Columbia | emancipation
 District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act

Fenit Nirappil on Twitter: ".@AOC ties D.C. statehood to the legacy of slavery: "The people who fled here to the District of Columbia to flee slavery because of the enlightenment of this community are now disenfranchised because of that very act"" / Twitter

Charlotte Clymer* on Twitter: ""I come from a people who are also disenfranchised. My family is from Puerto Rico... but D.C. is rooted in a different evil: slavery."
-- Congresswoman @AOC, on her support for statehood #DCStatehood" / Twitter

ACLU of DC on Twitter: ".@AOC at the #DCStatehood hearing: It was the District of Columbia that was the first territory to free slaves in the U.S. It is a profound irony that those who fled here, and their descendants, are denied full citizenship. #ShowUp4DC" / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "The right is pushing back on this. To clarify in 280 chars, DC was the first area where enslaved people were freed by the US government.
It was enacted by the Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862. https://t.co/plbSr7WCkw" / Twitter

‘The first blow against the edifice of slavery’: DC’s Emancipation Day, and why it matters now | WTOP

D.C.’s Emancipation Day came April 16, 1862, eight months before the Emancipation Proclamation. It was the first time the government ever officially liberated any slaves. The much better-known proclamation only applied to the 11 states of the Confederacy (which didn’t include Maryland, Kentucky, Delaware and Missouri) and didn’t in effect immediately free anyone, since Confederate states of course didn’t feel themselves bound by it. Slaves were considered free when they either reached the Union states or the Union Army got to them.

But D.C.’s Compensated Emancipation Act freed about 3,000 people with the stroke of a pen. It compensated the slaveholders for their “property” and gave freed black people money to emigrate if they wanted to.

“It puts the nation on a freedom road that is going take it not merely to the Emancipation Proclamation, but … through Juneteenth and the 13th Amendment,” said historian C.R. Gibbs, who has written extensively on D.C.’s early black history. “Emancipation in the District … is the first blow against the edifice of slavery by the federal government.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "(Certain localities and municipalities did pursue abolition earlier, but none were federally recognized.)" / Twitter

Several states had abolished slavery long before the Federal Government decreed its abolition anywhere. This led to the US being divided into slave states and free states.

 

[lpetrich]

Jenna Portnoy on Twitter: "When @AOC cast her committee vote in favor of #DCstatehood bill, she was emphatic: “Absolutely, yes.” So was @RashidaTlaib, who said: "700,000 people, yes," referring to DC's population. https://t.co/CFWOPBlCG2" / Twitter

D.C. statehood bill markup: Democrats, Republicans face off before floor vote - The Washington Post

"For such a historic achievement for the District of Columbia, the only message I can convey is gratitude," said D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the city's nonvoting representative and the lead sponsor of the bill. "We have only one last hill to climb in the House — onward to the House floor!"

...
“The United States is a democracy, but its capital is not,” Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), the committee chair, said before the meeting.

Sen. Mitch McConnell opposes DC statehood, in part because it would give the Democrats two Senators.

The members of the House Oversight Committee debated the statehood bill for 6 hours before voting on it. The Republicans introduced 15 poison-pill amendments about abortion, guns, and immigration, though all of them were voted down on party lines.

Raskin called such amendments an affront to D.C. residents’ right to self-determination.

“Please do not use their drive for statehood as an opportunity to finger-paint and scrawl graffiti all over their state constitution with your pet political agendas,” he said.

The ranking Republican, Rep. Jim Jordan, claimed that only a Constitutional amendment can create a new state, but Rep. Jamie Raskin set the record straight. None of the 37 states admitted after the original 13 were admitted by Constitutional amendment. All by act of Congress.

 

[lpetrich]

House panel approves bill to grant DC statehood | TheHill
It passed the Oversight Committee 21-16 on partisan lines, and it should get to the House floor in coming months.

Proponents of D.C. statehood note that the city has more residents than two states — Vermont and Wyoming — and that Census Bureau estimates show about 46 percent of the District’s roughly 706,000 residents are African American.

After the panel approved the bill, Norton enthusiastically high-fived House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).

House Committee Passes DC Statehood Bill – NBC4 Washington

At one point, Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, said D.C. residents should go to another state if they want representation in Congress.

"I think the people here can move if they choose to," Roy said.

Bowser called the Republicans' remarks "relentless and forced attacks" in her statement.

"By focusing their attacks on our values, opponents of statehood have proven once again that they have no other case to make – constitutional or otherwise," she said.

Not as colorful as Rep. Jamie Raskin's “Please do not use their drive for statehood as an opportunity to finger-paint and scrawl graffiti all over their state constitution with your pet political agendas,” however.

 

[lpetrich]

Mark Segraves on Twitter: "Members of [MENTION=990]CO[/MENTION]uncilofdc DC residents crowd into hearing room in Capitol Hill for historic #DCStatehood hearing Supporters are bracing for Republican amendments and attacks. Hearing expected to last many hours. @ChmnMendelson @cmdgrosso @marycheh @CMRobertWhiteDC @charlesallen https://t.co/DUYnuD2qz0" / Twitter

Mark Segraves on Twitter: "The #DCStatehood bill passes 21 to 16 out of House committee. Now on to full house vote. https://t.co/n54Sk89vBX" / Twitter

Rep. Jamie Raskin on Twitter: "GOP opponents of #DCStatehood argue that the only path to statehood is a constitutional amendment but none of the 37 states to join the original 13 has ever been admitted that way. As our historic @OversightDems markup on statehood begins, I try to set the record straight: https://t.co/vJxk3NWMxy" / Twitter

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib on Twitter: "HAPPENING NOW: For the first time in a generation, we will vote on finally giving 700,000 DC residents the vote they deserve in Congress. It's time for #DCStatehood. Tune in to this historic @OversightDems business meeting. https://t.co/3HrA1iI4DD" / Twitter

#DCStatehood has lots of tweets

Faye Dastgheib on Twitter: "That’s right! “They never envisioned a municipality with 700,000 residents” #DCStatehood https://t.co/JWuChq46yu" / Twitter
noting
Mayor Muriel Bowser on Twitter: "The #DistrictOfChampions thanks our #DCstatehood champions!
to all our @OversightDems
and
to our Warrior on the Hill @EleanorNorton! https://t.co/vgMYeHOkik" / Twitter

Some nice video of politicians making statements on DC statehood. I like Jamie Raskin's going through objections to admitting various other states. Texas - an independent republic. Alaska and Hawaii - not contiguous. Utah and Idaho - Mormon-dominated. Nice to see a politician say some intelligent things.

 

[lpetrich]

Committee Takes Historic Vote To Pass D.C. Statehood Bill | House Committee on Oversight and Reform

The Committee held a hearing on the legislation at a high-profile hearing last September. The bill would create a new state known as the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth with two Senators and one House Member. The federal district would continue to include the White House, U.S. Capitol, Supreme Court, National Mall, and other federal properties adjacent to the National Mall.

Rather confusingly, there are two bills on this subject:
H.R.51 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Washington, D.C. Admission Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress introduced 2019 Jan 3
H.R.5803 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Washington, D.C. Admission Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress introduced 2020 Feb 7

HR 5803 looks like a superset of HR 51 with some stuff added in for clarification.

Two maps that explain what DC might look like as a state – Greater Greater Washington shows a map of what the shrunken District of Columbia may look like. The Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, the White House, the National Mall, a strip southeastward on the east bank of the Potomac River, and the Navy Yard area.

 

[Jayjay]

As a foreigner, this baffles me. Sure I can understand why DC isn't a state, but what's the rationale for shunning Puerto Rico's statehood? Apart from the GOP "it's a power grab" nonsense?

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Whenever they vote for independence, they fail to get a majority. Whenever they vote for statehood, they fail to get a majority. It isn't just the GOP keeping Puerto Rico a territory.

A "shit or get off the pot" ballot would include only the options of statehood or independence.

 

[lpetrich]

Whenever they vote for independence, they fail to get a majority. Whenever they vote for statehood, they fail to get a majority. It isn't just the GOP keeping Puerto Rico a territory.

Nonbinding ones with very little voter turnout, and AOC has called them little better than polls.

A "shit or get off the pot" ballot would include only the options of statehood or independence.

AOC prefers that approach - binding referendums. She wants Puerto Rico "decolonized", but she doesn't take sides on statehood vs. independence.

 

[Angra Mainyu]

Whenever they vote for independence, they fail to get a majority. Whenever they vote for statehood, they fail to get a majority. It isn't just the GOP keeping Puerto Rico a territory.

Nonbinding ones with very little voter turnout, and AOC has called them little better than polls.

A "shit or get off the pot" ballot would include only the options of statehood or independence.

AOC prefers that approach - binding referendums. She wants Puerto Rico "decolonized", but she doesn't take sides on statehood vs. independence.

A binding referendum does not have to be limited to those options. It may also have a 'keep the statu quo' option.

 

[steve_bank]

There has been violence in the past by PR nationalists. Statehood could open old wounds. As it is PR continues to demonstrate an inability of around 4 million people to govern themselves. A reliable power grid for the small population is not exactly rocket science.

The way it is they have to vote for independence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Puerto_Rican_status_referendum

A referendum on the political status of Puerto Rico was held on December 13, 1998.[1] Voters were given the choice between statehood, independence, free association, being a territorial commonwealth, or none of the given options. A majority voted for the latter, with a turnout of 71.3%.[2]

Five alternatives were listed on the ballot: "limited self-government"; "free association"; "statehood"; "sovereignty"; and "none of the above." Disputes arose as to the definition of each of the ballot alternatives; and commonwealth advocates, among others, reportedly urged a vote for "none of the above." They asserted that the commonwealth definition on the ballot "failed to recognize both the constitutional protections afforded to our U.S. citizenship and the fact that the relationship is based upon the mutual consent of Puerto Rico and the United States." In the end, a slim majority of voters in that plebiscite selected "none of the above" (50.3%).[

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalist_Party_of_Puerto_Rico#Nationalist_Revolts_of_1950

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_United_States_Capitol_shooting_incident

The United States Capitol shooting incident of 1954 was an attack on March 1, 1954, by four Puerto Rican nationalists; they shot 30 rounds from semi-automatic pistols from the Ladies' Gallery (a balcony for visitors) of the House of Representatives chamber in the United States Capitol. They wanted to highlight their desire for Puerto Rican independence from US rule.

The nationalists, identified as Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andres Figueroa Cordero, and Irvin Flores Rodríguez, unfurled a Puerto Rican flag and began shooting at Representatives in the 83rd Congress, who were debating an immigration bill. Five Representatives were wounded, one seriously, but all recovered. The assailants were arrested, tried and convicted in federal court, and given long sentences, effectively life imprisonment. In 1978 and 1979, they were pardoned by President Jimmy Carter; all four returned to Puerto Rico.

I could look up the total aid per person over the last 40 years. In the 80s there were tax incentives for American business to invest.

Intel built a plant there.

I am not a public figure so I can be blunt. PR is a welfare state. It is not clear given climate change and increasing storms whether or not the island is maintainable.

 

[Trausti]

I am not a public figure so I can be blunt. PR is a welfare state. It is not clear given climate change and increasing storms whether or not the island is maintainable.

Those with smarts headed to the mainland long ago, leaving a dependent population that can't do anything right.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

There are advantages and disadvantages to statehood. There are also advantages and disadvantages to independence. There are also advantages and disadvantages to their current current status as territory.

Is it possible that they overall prefer their status as territory over that of state or independent?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I think Puerto Rico liked their independence when the US was giving corporations tax incentives to do business there. Since those incentives are gone, I think Puerto Rico really likes the idea of statehood. Seems to be a bit of poetic conflict of thought there.

With the likelihood of Senators from the state being Democrat, there will need to be a Missouri like compromise where the unpopulated portion of Maine gets spun off as it own state... again, providing Republicans with 2 equal Senators to offset Puerto Rico.

 

[steve_bank]

I am not a public figure so I can be blunt. PR is a welfare state. It is not clear given climate change and increasing storms whether or not the island is maintainable.

Those with smarts headed to the mainland long ago, leaving a dependent population that can't do anything right.

I went to school with PR kids in the 50s 60s. In the news there is a new version of West Side Story on Broadway

 

[steve_bank]

I do not see how statehood would help PR. If it did happen then any green card holder or citizen could move there and buy land. Puerto Ricans would have no special preference or deference under COTUS. A culture clash.

As a state PR can not be a Puerto Rican state. I doubt they would like the consequences.

https://www.puertoricoreport.com/confused-medicaid-puerto-rico/

Puerto Rico, which can legally be treated differently from a state, gets a lower percentage of federal funds than a state would. The federal share for Puerto Rico is currently 55%, even though half the residents of Puerto Rico were eligible for Medicaid before the hurricane season. If Puerto Rico were a state, the federal government would officailly pay 83%.

https://www.macpac.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Medicaid-and-CHIP-in-Puerto-Rico.pdf

Puerto Rico finances its portion of Medicaid program costs primarily through general funds and revenue from the municipalities (CMS 2016e). However, the funds provided by BBA 2018 are available at a 100 percent matching rate. Total spending In FY 2018, federal Medicaid spending in Puerto Rico was $2.29 billion,

 

[lpetrich]

Opinion | Washington, D.C., Deserves Statehood - The New York Times - "Washington is the only national capital in the democratic world whose citizens lack equal voting rights."

An often overlooked piece of the justice agenda was cast into stark relief last week, when President Trump ordered heavily armed federal forces into the District of Columbia against the will of Mayor Muriel Bowser. Largely because Washington lacks statehood, Mr. Trump had the authority to line city streets with military Humvees, to fly Black Hawk helicopters dangerously low to terrorize protesters, to fill the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with military personnel and to deploy thousands of federal forces, many unidentifiable with no discernible chain of command, like Russian “Little Green Men,” to intimidate residents.

Most shockingly, after threatening to federalize the Metropolitan Police, Attorney General William Barr unleashed federal forces who violently dispersed journalists and peaceful protesters using tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray, horses, shields and batons. All for a presidential photo-op.

For one long week, Mr. Trump transformed my hometown into a war zone to burnish his “law and order” credentials. Without statehood, Washington was virtually powerless to prevent Mr. Trump from using the capital as a petri dish to intimidate protesters, divide Americans and goad activists into ugly street battles to galvanize elements of his base.

Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to send troops to other US cities, but some high-level military officials convinced him to back off. Susan Rice then made a case for DC statehood.

 

[lpetrich]

Susan Rice first noted DC's population, around 700,000. Greater than WY's and VT's, and around AK's and DE's.

She points out that the Constitution specifies that the Federal territory must not be more than "10 miles square" -- it does not specify that exact size. Furthermore, the part of it southwest of the Potomac was given back to Virginia in the early 19th cy., so there is precedent for such an action. All that the Federal Government needs to be sovereign over is some important Federal buildings, like the Congress building and the White House. In fact, one DC-statehood bill went into very gory detail about its marking out of the Federal area.

She thinks that the real reason is "racism and political interest", because much of DC's population is black.

Last month, Mr. Trump said the quiet part out loud. “D.C. will never be a state,” he told The New York Post: “They want to do that so they pick up two automatic Democrat — you know it’s 100 percent Democrat, basically — so why would the Republicans ever do that?”

If the Democrats ever get all the elected branches, they ought to pass DC statehood while they can. They ought to abolish or weaken the filibuster if they have to. Senate Republicans can then stomp their feet and wail about how "socialist" it is, as Mitch McConnell has done.

Washington has fulfilled the prerequisites for statehood under the “Tennessee Plan,” the same formula that admitted seven states to the union. District residents have approved a statehood referendum (86 percent in favor), ratified a state constitution and delineated new state boundaries to preserve a federal enclave, among other steps. Now the 51st state can be established simply by both houses of Congress passing a bill that is signed by the president.