Congressional lawmakers said Tuesday the reintroduction of legislation to end Puerto Rico’s unequal treatment under federal benefits programs by admitting the territory as the 51st state has better prospects for consideration this year.
President Biden has gone on record favoring statehood, unlike his predecessor who slow-walked federal aid to the territory in the wake of Hurricanes Maria and Irma with concerns about local corruption.
“Admission as the 51st state would put the commonwealth on equal footing with other states to receive key sources of federal funding, especially for Medicaid, a credit positive,” Moody’s said in a report issued in November.
The report was issued shortly after a referendum on U.S. statehood received more than 52% support among Puerto Rico voters.
The new governor of the territory is Pedro Pierluisi, a member of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party who is well-positioned to lobby in Washington for statehood after serving for eight years as Puerto Rico’s nonvoting member of the U.S. House.
Increased federal funding for Medicare, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are among the top priorities for the territory that would be resolved if the island became a state.
Separate legislation to provide SSI disability benefits for residents of Puerto Rico also has been introduced in Congress this year. And on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments in a case involving SSI benefits for a resident of Puerto Rico.
Moody’s said the downside of statehood would be “new federal taxing requirements imposed on commonwealth residents and businesses.”
Completion of a territorial debt-restructuring plan would likely be a congressional precondition for statehood.
Statehood requires passage of enabling legislation by the House and Senate with approval by the president. The proposed legislation also requires a ratification vote by residents of the island.
Legislation to allow the District of Columbia to become a state already has been reintroduced and is a priority for congressional Democrats.
Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon and Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said Tuesday they both support DC statehood but want the Puerto Rico legislation kept separate.
“This is a bipartisan bill, which is the main difference between DC statehood and Puerto Rican statehood,” Gonzalez-Colon said.
The Puerto Rico Admissions Act reintroduced Tuesday in the House by Gonzalez-Colon, a Republican, and Democratic Rep. Darren Soto of Florida has 51 bipartisan cosponsors, up from 21 in the last Congress.
Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico is planning on soon introducing a Senate companion bill, according to Gonzalez-Colon.
The Senate bill is expected to be bipartisan because both of Florida’s Republican senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, have publicly supported Puerto Rico statehood in the past, said Gonzalez-Colon.
With Democrats having regained majority control of the Senate, a vote in the upper chamber is more likely in the current Congress given that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has gone on record as favoring statehood. New York has a large Puerto Rican population, especially in New York City.
Statehood legislation last passed Congress 62 years ago in 1959. Passage of the Act to Provide for the Admission of the State of Hawaii into the Union dissolved the territory of Hawaii and established the State of Hawaii as the 50th state effective Aug. 21, 1959.
