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The essential argument is the success story itself. I hope that the Congress and the people of Puerto Rico will not be distracted by the frustrations of modernity but will grant Commonwealth its due for the fundamental successes which it has afforded our people and for what it promises for the future.

Jaime Benítez
June 15, 1989

ess and

ity but

forded

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Commissioner Benitez. It has been my pleasure to serve with three very distinguished resident commissioners-yourself, Mr. Fuster and Mr. Corrada.

And I would like to ask you how effective were you and the others able to be in the House under the present situation as a representative of Puerto Rico?

Mr. BENITEZ. Well, I must say that I have no complaints, in the sense that I would make emphasis on my own weakness to get strength just by raising the basic legitimate claims of Puerto Rico and say to my colleagues who have the vote, this is a principle which is fundamental to democratic understanding.

I have no vote. My vote is your conscience, and I have the great experience that that conscience and that claim were successful. And we managed to achieve a number of fundamental principles that were acceptable and accepted by the Congress of the United States.

I do not recall of any instance where on a significant issue, once the matter was clear, at least in the Committee of Insular Affairs, and the basic committee of education, and the Commission of Labor where I worked that the things were not successfully established. And as you may recall, that project which is an anticipation of what we are discussing here, that project which was created in what was called the ad hoc committee, of which you were a member, was approved. We perhaps wasted too much time in hearings and hearings and hearings, but it was eventually approved by the subcommittee on which Phil Burton was president, in which Tom Foley, now Speaker of the House, was a member.

But unfortunately time, which was of the essence, called for an election and the matter could not continue.

But I am sure if we had not made the mistake of losing the elections in 1976, by this time, we would have already an enhanced commonwealth. Because it is what the people of Puerto Rico wanted and what was best for Puerto Rico and the United States. The CHAIRMAN. Let me ask you. How important do you think some representation of Puerto Rico in the United States Senate is? I do not know what the reaction of my colleagues will be to that question, but how important is it in your mind?

Mr. BENITEZ. Well, it is more a matter of equanimity and equality in the House as in the Senate. But for myself I found that the one speaker that Puerto Rico has in Congress can be effective in both houses if he devotes himself as he must to work as if he were nine persons at the same time. That is the seven representatives and the two senators.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator McClure.

Senator MCCLURE. What we have seen evolving and what I see in the enhanced commonwealth proposal is a further evolution of the idea of autonomy with mutually acceptable conditions of relationships between two governments.

Mr. BENITEZ. This is right.

Senator MCCLURE. Within the existing constitutional system, there are limits to the delegation of authority. This is not the same situation that occurred with commonwealth which meant the end to appointed governors and the replacement of a federal organic act with a local constitution.

At some point, commonwealth will have achieved the maximum possible brand of local government. What will be left is the continual examination of the proper and advisable allocation of responsibilities between federal and local governments.

How close are we to that point now?

Mr. BENITEZ. Well, we are rather close in many ways, but what is necessary, and this again is explained at length in my paper, is a clear definition of commonwealth.

Because our problem heretofore is that following the American example, and the English example, we have progressed step by step, case by case, situation by situation. The Latin American, the Puerto Rican, the Roman system of law operates on definitions. So the one big aim that we have tried to gather in this proposal is a clear definition of the autonomy, of the self-generation of Puerto Rico's commonwealth so that we may have something clear and specific to present and to educate those minority groups in Puerto Rico who are always claiming no matter what happens that we are talking in a colonial situation.

This argument of colonialism can best be ratified by looking at the other communities throughout the rest of America in Latin America. Look north, south and west, and we will discover by having our students and our people going to Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Guatemala, Nicaragua, anywhere else, and they will visit Mexico and will discover that justice, opportunity to change governments, freedom, education, all the basic significant aspects of life for the people, are much higher in Puerto Rico.

Life expectancy longer than in any of the other communities in America with the exception of the United States.

Senator MCCLURE. We hope to be able to give the people of Puerto Rico the opportunity to make a choice. Do you believe that the values of interdependency under commonwealth are sufficient to convince the voters to maintain the status quo without enhancements?

Mr. BENITEZ. Well, I think really that if you refuse to enhance at all, we will win anyhow. But if you refuse to enhance at all, you would be doing an injustice not only to Puerto Rico, but to the United States itself.

Senator MCCLURE. Thank you very much.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Moynihan.

Senator MOYNIHAN. Thank you so much, sir. It has been an honor to see you and great form always.

Mr. BENITEZ. Thank you. Well, I have finished my statement if you have anything else. But the real point, if I may for two minutes more, express the basic principles.

We in Puerto Rico have evolved and manage to develop in relations with the United States in a 90-year period of relationship a form of understanding, of communication between two cultures, between two approaches.

I may say that Puerto Rico has one of the most dense populations on earth, 960 persons per square mile. Alaska has one person per square mile. The United States has 65. So there are differences besides even the languages which require a different economic arrangement and possibilities. And it is the uniformity which the

American Constitution requires for states that will need the protection.

Not for 25 years, but forever, so that we can develop our own economy and not have to twist it around in a different way than we request enhanced commonwealth.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Don Jaime, for an excellent statement. It is good to see you looking so well and in such good form.

Mr. BENITEZ. Thank you. I hope that both Republicans and Democrats become the majority in support of enhanced commonwealth.

The CHAIRMAN. Next we are very pleased to welcome the distinguished president of the Puerto Rican Senate, our good friend, Miguel Hernandez Agosto. Mr. President, welcome.

STATEMENT OF HON. MIGUEL A. HERNANDEZ AGOSTO,
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE OF PUERTO RICO

Mr. AGOSTO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Distinguished members of this committee.

On behalf of the Senate of Puerto Rico, I welcome you to our island. We all appreciate this opportunity for an exchange of ideas on our political status. Since you have installed a system of simultaneous translation, and since you have my English version of my statement, I hope you do not mind if I proceed in my vernacular Spanish.

I want to share with you my points of view regarding the applicability of the federal laws to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. This matter is at the core of the relationship of Puerto Rico with the United States, and it has to do with the principles of democracy that frame this relationship.

Until now, our system has worked under the concept that we have given the Congress generic consent, or in another fashion, in 1952, when we established the Commonwealth, the people of Puerto Rico gave its consent to the laws, to the federal laws approved, and those that would be approved in the future by the Congress.

This type of consent that is of generic acceptance of all the laws that Congress might adapt in the future is too fragile since it ties irrevocably their future from generations of Puerto Ricans. Such consent is not in harmony with our high ideals of democracy. I say to you, Mr. President and members of this committee, that legislation without participation can be as onerous as taxation without representation. Legislation without participation can be as bad as taxation with representation.

Our pre-occupation is not new. On the contrary, it has always been clear to us that not all the federal laws should apply to Puerto Rico, that different social and economical conditions of Puerto Rico force us to a different approach, a differentiated approach.

So the Foraker law approved in the 1900s, our first organic law under the government of the United States, established that only "the statutory laws of the United States not locally inapplicable

shall have the same force of law and validity in Puerto Rico as in the United States."

The Jones Act had a similar provision in Article 9. This is the rule that controls under the Federal Relations statutes, relations with Puerto Rico. The federal judicial system has examined this relationship on several occasions, and although generally it has favored that Puerto Rico have greater control over its own internal matters, particularly after the creation of the Commonwealth.

There have been no clear principles since Congress has left it to the courts to decide, so we find a judicial interpretation that says a broader interpretation of this disposition, and others that enforce a more restrictive interpretation, so that it is necessary to adapt clear rules that establish the policy of the Congress of the United States towards Puerto Rico in a way that will guarantee a consistent application of these principles, and that they are mutually acceptable.

The amendment proposed to Article 1 of the Federal Relations Law in its second paragraph says that the policy of the United States will move towards improving relationships of the Commonwealth in harmony with the principles and in permanent union with the United States. This policy is a result of the national tendency of the United States towards greater support to greater local autonomy for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

The purpose of subparagraph 4 of the proposal is to provide a mechanism for the implementation of such policy in relation to the statutory law. The proposal suggests two amendments to the federal law to set forth the law set forth in subparagraph 3, in item (b) which would be added to Article 9 of Federal Relations, providing that statutory law in Puerto Rico will be locally inapplicable unless "it gives appropriate consideration to local conditions of cultural, economic, ecological, geographical, and demographic conditions of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico."

On the other hand, federal statutory law regarding international relations, defense and national security of the United States, citizenship and donation of services to the citizens of the United States as individuals would apply to Puerto Rico. A provision is included with which Congress can determine specifically facts that national interests would apply to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico if it is in the national interests.

In this way, it is balanced and protects the interests of the United States and of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico at the same time that it provides a specific standard to guard the judicial branch. The second amendment that is proposed to the Federal Relations Act deals with the applicability of federal laws to Puerto Rico.

At first glance, it might appear new and somewhat complicated. However, a serious reading of the proposal demonstrates that this is not the case. In the new item (c), Article 9 of the Federal Relations Act authorizes the Governor of the Commonwealth to certify to the three highest officials, highest ranking officials of the Government of the United States, that a certain law or provision of the law is inconsistent with a Puerto Rican statute with the policies as explained in subsection (b).