The cur­rent polit­i­cal sta­tus of Puerto Rico is offi­cially called Estado Libre Aso­ci­ado de Puerto Rico. When it is trans­lated into Eng­lish, it means Free Asso­ci­ated State of Puerto Rico. Over time, this polit­i­cal sta­tus has been con­ve­niently referred to as the Com­mon­wealth of Puerto Rico. Ter­ri­to­r­ial sta­tus is meant to be a tran­si­tional step to usher in a per­ma­nent sta­tus, such as state­hood or inde­pen­dence. Estab­lished in 1952, the ter­ri­to­r­ial arrange­ment it was meant to serve as a tran­si­tional step.

The Supreme Court of the United States acknowl­edged that Puerto Rico fell under the ter­ri­to­r­ial clause of the U.S. Con­sti­tu­tion and under the author­ity of Con­gress: Con­gress, pur­suant to its author­ity under the Ter­ri­tory Clause of the Con­sti­tu­tion to make all rules and reg­u­la­tions respect­ing Ter­ri­to­ries, may treat Puerto Rico dif­fer­ently from States so long as there is a basis for its actions.  In effect, Con­gress has the author­ity to regard The Com­mon­wealth of Puerto Rico as an ordi­nary ter­ri­tory and treat Puerto Rico in a dif­fer­ent way from the other 50 states.  In other words, Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States of America.

This cur­rent colo­nial sta­tus does not allow Puerto Ricans to vote for the Pres­i­dent of the United States.  Puerto Ricans do not have rep­re­sen­ta­tion in the U.S. Sen­ate and no vot­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tion in Con­gress.  Instead, the 4 mil­lion U.S. Cit­i­zens of Puerto Rico only have one Res­i­dent Com­mis­sioner who can­not even vote on the House floor.  There­fore, Puerto Ricans have no say in the mak­ing of the laws and statutes that apply to them. Even though the U.S. Supreme Court has absolute juris­dic­tion over Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans do not have rep­re­sen­ta­tion in the U.S. Sen­ate to cast an up or down vote on Supreme Court nom­i­nees.  In the end, Puerto Rico is gov­erned by a Con­gress in which they are not allowed to par­tic­i­pate in, an Exec­u­tive whom they did not elect, and a Judi­ciary whose jus­tices they did not confirm.

List of H.R. Pro­posed Bills in Con­gress in 2009

• H.R. 2499 (Puerto Rico Democ­racy Act of 2009)
• H.R. 1958 (To amend the Mil­i­tary Con­struc­tion Autho­riza­tion Act)
• H.R. 1502 (Puerto Rico Hos­pi­tals Medicare DSH Equity Act of 2009)
• H.R. 1501 (Puerto Rico Medicare Reim­burse­ment Equity Act of 2009 )
• H.R. 2839 (Puerto Rico Work and Empow­er­ment Act of 2009)
• H.R. 2582 (To extend the sup­ple­men­tal secu­rity income pro­gram to Puerto Rico)
• H.R. 2680 (Ter­ri­to­r­ial Health Par­ity Act of 2009)