National View:
Politicians ignore Puerto Rico at their peril.
While the images of Hurricane Maria’s devastation have mostly disappeared from the national news networks, Puerto Rico is still reeling from the storm’s impact. We continue working around the clock to repair the storm’s extensive damage, but many Puerto Ricans still lack basic necessities, most notably power.
Sadly, many politicians in Washington have abandoned Puerto Rico as we struggle to recover from one of the worst natural disasters in American history. That is why Puerto Ricans everywhere need to stand up to demand just and equal treatment for the 3 million American citizens living on the island that are too often overlooked by the government that is supposed to represent us.
Because Puerto Rico is a colonial territory, not a state, many members of Congress aren’t motivated to help a constituency that lacks official representation in Washington or a voice in national elections. It is time we teach them that this willful neglect is a grave miscalculation.
Puerto Ricans represent a growing political force in the mainland United States. Puerto Rican communities are booming across the country. The Interstate 4 corridor here in Florida has seen the fastest-growing Puerto Rican population in the country since 2010. More than 5 million Puerto Ricans now live permanently on the mainland United States and 1 million of them live in Florida. Puerto Ricans will soon overtake Cuban-Americans as Florida’s largest Latino community.
A growing population on the mainland means growing political power for the island. Typically, Puerto Ricans are active, engaged, issue-oriented voters. Historical voting rates reach 80 percent. We need to re-engage those who have left the island and have them pay close attention to how politicians in Washington ignore their friends and family back on the island.
Now it is time to harness this political power and put it to work. Today, I’ll be hosting a town hall in Kissimmee with hundreds of Puerto Ricans and friends of Puerto Rico who live in Central Florida. My message is straightforward: We will organize and influence elections in Florida and elsewhere in our nation.
Congress must take note. Leaders must step up and provide the same level of disaster relief they have allocated for other communities that need it on the mainland.
We should not have to beg the federal government to deliver on promises of protecting its most vulnerable citizens or fulfill its own policy to establish economic growth and fiscal sustainability through the federal law known as PROMESA. In the wake of Hurricane Maria, nearly a million Puerto Ricans are at risk of losing their health coverage because of a Medicaid funding shortfall. The disaster relief bill passed by Congress failed to cover this shortfall. I am committed to reforming Puerto Rico’s government to prevent these shortfalls in the future, but Washington needs to uphold its commitment to its own citizens. And we will not stand by while Congress gives no thought to passing laws that could potentially devastate our economy. The tax bill that was just signed into law included a massive tax increase on American companies doing business in Puerto Rico. As a result, our once-thriving medicaldevice industry — Puerto Rico is home to 70 medicaldevice manufacturing plants — could quickly dry up as companies seek more favorable tax structures elsewhere.
When it comes to representation, I believe many of Puerto Rico’s challenges stem from our ambiguous status as a United States territory. I support statehood. It is the path away from the second-class citizenship afforded to the people of Puerto Rico. But Congress needs to act now.
Politicians ignore Puerto Rico at their own peril. Heading into this year’s midterm elections, I am calling on all Puerto Ricans to register to vote, speak with one voice as we exercise our right as citizens in Florida and the rest of our nation. We should elect leaders who will stand up for the island, for the American citizens who reside there, and for the millions of Puerto Ricans who now call the mainland United States home.
We will no longer be ignored. And we should make that clear to our elected officials in Washington. Let’s end this powerlessness; let’s end second-class citizenship in the U.S.
We need to re-engage those who have left the island to pay close attention to how politicians in Washington ignore their friends and family back on the island.