Delegate Supports Fair Process In Determining Puerto Rico Status

Delegate to Congress Donna M. Christensen said that the Puerto Rico status issue before the Committee of Resources is important and relevant to the Virgin Islands. “Whatever course you take, even the process you adopted, will affect the rest of us,” said Christensen at the oversight hearing on the report by the President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status. The report, issued last December, provides for the future status of Puerto Rico and its relationship with the United States.

Christensen told the committee that a decision like status evolves and may take a long time. “It cannot be forced, and in my opinion, that is what the Task Force Report and HR 4867 attempts to do.” She expressed her support for HR 4963, the Puerto Rico Self Determination Act of 2006 which she says “opens the process up entirely for the people of Puerto Rico to decide the course and the ultimate status they desire.”