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Home
Authors
Dick Thornburgh
American
Politician
About the author
After one hundred years of federal rule, the United States House of Representatives has moved to provide for the first meaningful route to self-determination for the Puerto Rican people under our federal system.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#People
#Years
#First
#Self
#states
#United
Instead of generating either unnecessary alarm or a false sense of security regarding these fundamental issues, the best course is to empower people with the truth.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#Security
#People
#Sense
#Truth
In historical and constitutional terms, the recent political status vote in Puerto Rico was a necessary but obviously not decisive step on the road of self-determination leading to full self-government.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#Leading
#Self
#Road
#Vote
If U.S. national sovereignty continues, it is only as a state that Puerto Rico will have permanent 10th Amendment powers over its non-federal affairs, as well as voting power in Congress.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#Will
#State
#Power
#Congress
#Voting
If Congress does its job in this regard, the residents of Puerto Rico will be empowered to act in their own self-interest and express their future political status aspirations accordingly.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#Will
#Act
#Self
#Congress
#Future
#Job
#Aspirations
However, the sovereignty of the states is constitutionally defined and recognized, while the powers of the local government in Puerto Rico are defined by, and subject to alteration under, federal statutory law.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#Law
#Government
#states
Federal program and services outlay in Puerto Rico is approximately $10 billion per year.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
Apparently tired of waiting for clear direction from Congress, the people of Puerto Rico have used the tools provided by their own local constitution to schedule a vote for Dec. 13 on the status of the island.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#People
#Congress
#Vote
#Constitution
#Tools
#Waiting
#Direction
As the highest ranking American official in the United Nations organization, I came to understand thoroughly that the national constitutional processes of the member states define the status of territories under their sovereignty.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#American
#Nations
#states
#United
It is quite understandable that Puerto Ricans seek to preserve a cultural sense of identity without separating politically from U.S. national sovereignty.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#Sense
#Identity
The need for a permanent status resolution approved by Congress is made even more clear to me because of my experience as a former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#Experience
#Congress
#Nations
#United
#Resolution
Yet, Puerto Rico's economic convergence and political integration with the rest of the nation is in a state of arrest - even though the island has been within the national borders, political system and customs territory of the U.S. for a century.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#State
#Rest
#Nation
Yet, individuals and corporations in Puerto Rico pay no federal income tax.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#Tax
#Income
#Corporations
The powers of government exercised locally derive from a federal law authorizing government by consent in local affairs only, unless those affairs are otherwise governed by federal law.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#Law
#Government
The political status legislation which emerged in Congress in 1990 and 1991 did not receive the support needed for enactment into law during my tenure as Attorney General.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#Support
#Law
#Congress
#Legislation
That is why, with optimism instead of fear, all those who want to see Puerto Rico's status resolved should seek the truth about each option, including the upside and the downside of each.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#Want
#Fear
#Truth
#Optimism
Now that the there is a path for the people of Puerto Rico to express their self-determination on Puerto Rico's political status, there are some who seek to block that path.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#Now
#People
#Self
Internal self-government under a local constitution was authorized by Congress and approved by the residents in 1952, but federal law is supreme in Puerto Rico and residents do not have voting representation in the Congress.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#Law
#Self
#Congress
#Constitution
#Voting
The capacity of the commonwealth government created under the local constitution to exercise governmental powers in local affairs is like that of local government in the states of the union in regard to non-federal affairs at the local level.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#Government
#Exercise
#states
#Constitution
Specifically, the reservation of sovereignty to the people of the states in matters not governed by federal law is constitutionally defined and permanently enshrined in the 10th Amendment.
Dick Thornburgh,
American
Politician
#People
#Law
#states