WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) sent a letter to the House of Representatives, urging them to support H.R. 6246, the Puerto Rico Admission Act of 2018.
The letter reads:
“The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has been an unincorporated territory of the United States for nearly 120 years. While local state governance for Puerto Rico was approved by Congress in 1952, the island continues to lag behind states and international competitors. For the last 12 years, Puerto Rico has been stuck in a deep recession that hit a precipice in May 2017 when the commonwealth filed for the largest U.S. municipal bankruptcy in history. Even before the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria, the territory’s debt stood at $73 billion and unemployment was 11.5 percent.
“In order to fix Puerto Rico’s unstable fiscal course, efforts should be made to clear a path to statehood. Positioning Puerto Rico to become a state would provide uniform laws, tax policies, and regulations that could unleash the commonwealth’s economic potential and allow it to compete more effectively both domestically and globally. Creating a more level playing field would encourage business investment, improve its ability to react and recover from natural disasters, and reverse the trend of migration from the island that has put a budgetary strain on mainland states like Florida.
“H.R. 6246 provides the pathway to stability and statehood for Puerto Rico. This legislation would establish a bipartisan task force to identify laws that need to be reformed for the territory to become a state by 2021 and recommend economic measures that Puerto Rico should adhere to in its transition to statehood.
“The people of Puerto Rico have chosen twice in the last five years that they no longer want to be a territory. H.R. 6246 gives Congress the opportunity to set Puerto Rico on a trajectory to become the 51st state, and in doing so, provide institutional stability and generate economic growth for the island and the nation. CCAGW urges you to co-sponsor H.R. 6246 and support its prompt enactment.”
The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.
