Delegates of Puerto Rico and other US territories will no longer be allowed to vote on the floor of the House of Representatives in Washington D.C., one of a number of rule changes brought in by the new Republican majority in the House.
Delegates from Puerto Rico, Washington D.C., Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands were given the right to cast votes in the House by the reigning Democrats in 2007. The Republican leadership announced shortly after settling into their new role as the House Majority in early January that they will rescind that right.
“This is a shameful step backwards that House Republicans took today,” said Congressman José E. Serrano, who is of Puerto Rican descent.
Had my parents not left Puerto Rico, I would certainly have been in the situation that these people find themselves in through no choice or fault of their own,” Serrano said, adding, “It is a slap in the face of the millions of citizens and people living under the U.S. flag in these territories. They have had the ability to have their voices heard in the U.S. House of Representatives for only four short years, and there is no excuse for taking that right away from these duly elected leaders.”
Serrano called on House Speaker, John Boehner (Rep) of Ohio and House Republicans to “reconsider this terrible decision and restore their voice in the House of Representatives.”
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I don’t think they ever had the ‘right’ to begin with. First, the US Constitution clearly outlines how the House is to be composed (Article 1, Section 1). These territories and D.C. are not states, and do not have the responsibilities of states. Accordingly, as this was not a ‘right’–and because of the Constitutional principle that no present Congress can bind a future Congress–there is nothing being ‘rescinded’.
Secondly, Serrano’s point about citizens of these territories living the mainland United States is not fully considered. Surely these people have the opportunity to vote in the Congressional District in which they reside in the US mainland. Why should their political ‘voice’ be expressed twice?