Broad Coalition of Puerto Rican Leaders Calls on Senate to Oppose House Bill to Address Puerto Rico's Fiscal Crisis

WASHINGTON, June 23, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A broad coalition of prominent Puerto Rican civil society leaders and organizations, representing all sides of the ideological and political spectrum, today issued an open letter to U.S. Senators calling on them to oppose the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (the so-called PROMESA bill, HR 5278), which passed the House of Representatives several weeks ago.

The coalition denounced PROMESA saying "it revokes the Puerto Rican people's basic, fundamental right to democratic self-governance, by imposing a federally-appointed "oversight board" composed of unelected Washington bureaucrats to govern the island without any accountability nor the consent of the governed."

The coalition criticized efforts by Senate leadership to pass the bill on a cloture vote without properly having a thorough debate and the possibility to introduce amendments. 

The coalition includes important national organizations and leaders such as the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, the National Puerto Rican Coalition (NPRC), the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators and Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award winner Willie Colon.

Text of the letter below:

Open letter from Broad Coalition of Puerto Rican Leaders to the United States Senate

Dear Senators,

We, the undersigned Puerto Rican leaders urge you to oppose cloture on the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (the so-called PROMESA bill, HR 5278), and to oppose it outright if the bill is not amended in a manner that respects the rights of the 3.5 million American citizens living in Puerto Rico and up to 8 million US citizens of Puerto Rican heritage living in the mainland United States.

The PROMESA bill revokes the Puerto Rican people's basic, fundamental right to democratic self-governance, by imposing a federally-appointed "oversight board" composed of unelected Washington bureaucrats to govern the island without any accountability nor the consent of the governed.  

As reflected by several polls, the majority of Puerto Ricans oppose PROMESA.  In fact, for most PROMESA represents a setback to the island's democratic developments.  Unfortunately the White House and Congressional leaders are not in tune with the political reality of the island.

Politicians from both sides of the aisle claim that this bill will simply impose an "oversight board" but the details of the bill show that this Board would control nearly every aspect of the local government and will not promote nor incentivize any kind of economic development in the island.  Also, politicians have said many times that if this bill does not pass the way it is written, "a humanitarian crisis will ensue in the island". We, as leaders of the community, who have many of our loved ones in the island, can attest that this is misleading and that is only being used maliciously to force senators to support this bill without proper debate.  Truth is, this bill does not tackle properly the fiscal crisis the island is going through and it could make matters worse.

It is bad enough that Congress would trample on the basic rights of its people.  That Congress would circumvent the democratic process and to do so at the behest of the White House and Congressional leaders – thus depriving lawmakers of the chance to amend the bill in any way that might improve it - is profoundly un-American. Any bill, and especially one with such consequential, long-term implications for tens of millions of American citizens, must be subjected to the full legislative process. 

Puerto Ricans want a move towards full self-government not a limitation of democracy.  They want to see an end to the colonial rule, not its perpetuation. We urge you to support regular order by opposing cloture for this bill, and to take a stand for the rule of law by voting "no" if it is not sufficiently amended. 

Thank you for your time and consideration, we look forward to being a resource to you as you consider this issue further.

Sincerely,

The Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles works to engage the Latino community on conservative causes and garner greater Latino support for our issues and conservative candidates. We encourage the conservative movement to support Latino conservative groups, leaders, candidates, and policies that are welcoming of Latino immigrants.

SOURCE Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles

WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM?

440k+
Newsrooms &
Influencers

9k+
Digital Media
Outlets

270k+
Journalists
Opted In

GET STARTED