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{
    "localId": "1554455",
    "label": "Puerto Rico - Compact of Permanent Union, October 1975",
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    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1554455"
}

{
    "id": "1554455",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1554455",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Puerto Rico - Compact of Permanent Union, October 1975",
    "description": "This file contains a published report of the Ad hoc Advisory Group on Puerto Rico.",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1554455",
    "collections": [
        "White House Special Files Unit Files",
        "Issue Decision Papers for the President"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "Puerto Rico",
        "Intergovernmental relations",
        "Territories and possessions"
    ],
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    "coverageEndDate": {
        "logicalDate": "1975-10-31",
        "month": 10,
        "year": 1975
    },
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        "logicalDate": "1975-10-01",
        "month": 10,
        "year": 1975
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{
    "seq": 34,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/ford/grf-0010/569572/1554455/1554455_Page_035_Image_0001.jpg",
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    "ocrText": "Having said this, I think it is appropriate to point to potential\nhazards in the draft Compact. The sense of common citizenship\nthat is essential to the Commonwealth concept depends on far\nmore than a legal document. It requires common loyalties and a\nlasting perception of mutual self-interest. Solemn compact will not\nbind together for long two peoples who for one reason or another\nSEPARATE VIEWS OF\nfeel they have separate destinies, or when one or the other comes\nSENATOR J AMES L. BUCKLEY\nto feel the relationship to be unduly burdensome or unfair.\nIt is for this reason that I feel the most careful thought must\nbe given to certain of the provisions of the draft Compact that\nThe Charter of the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Puerto Rico\ncould place unnecessary strains on the relationship it proposes to\ncontains the following explicit instructions to the fourteen mem-\nperfect. I am most particularly concerned with the interplay\nbers appointed by the President of the United States and the\nbetween section 4 (Puerto Rico's exemption from the Internal\nGovernor of Puerto Rico:\nRevenue laws of the United States), section 6 (the definition of\n\"In order to implement the express desires of the people\nthe rights and duties of common citizenship), sections 2 and 12\nof Puerto Rico freely made in the plebiscite of 1967, this\n(limitations on the jurisdiction of the United States), and section\nAd Hoc Advisory Group will be charged further to develop\n11 (the nature of the representation of Puerto Rico in the Con-\nthe maximum of self-government and self-determination\ngress of the United States).\nwithin the framework of Commonwealth-a common\nAs my Puerto Rican colleagues can attest, I have sought\ndefense, a common market, a common currency, and the\nthroughout our deliberations a logical and consistent approach to\nindissoluble link of United States citizenship.'\nwhat I understood to be our mandate; namely, to provide Puerto\nI cite the Charter because the appointment and work of the\nRico with a maximum autonomy consistent with common citizen-\nAd Hoc Group has been the source of controversy among Puerto\nship, a common defense, a common currency, and a common\nRicans who continue to debate the relative merits of Common-\nmarket. In my judgment, the autonomy envisioned by Common-\nwealth status versus statehood or independence.¹ The instructions\nwealth status together with a permanent exemption from the\ncited expressly limited the scope of the Advisory Group's work to\nInternal Revenue laws of the United States require a strict con-\nthat of examining the Commonwealth relationship can be im-\nstruction of the rights of citizens resident in Puerto Rico, and a\nproved within the framework adopted by the Puerto Rican\nrepresentation in Congress that is tailored to reflect the extent of\nplebiscite of 1967. The report submitted by the Ad Hoc Advisory\nthe Congress' retained jurisdiction over Puerto Rico.\nGroup to the President of the United States and the Governor of\nAddressing myself to sections 4 and 6, I do not believe that\nPuerto Rico, therefore, in no way represents a judgment on the\nthe non-taxpaying residents of a largely autonomous Puerto Rico\ncontroversial question of \"status\". It only represents the consen-\nshould have an automatic right to share on an equal basis in all the\nsus as to how the existing legal status can be improved in accor-\nbenefits to which the tax-paying residents of the fifty states may\ndance with its own terms.\nbe entitled by virtue of programs enacted by the representatives\nelected from the fifty states to the Congress. I doubt the perma-\n1\nIt is estimated that at the present time approximately 51 % of Puerto Ricans\nnency of any relationship in which Puerto Rico is spared the\nresident in Puerto Rico favor a continuation of the present status, 42% of Puerto Ricans\nfavor statehood, and approximately 5% seek a severance of all political ties with the\nburdens of participation in the larger American enterprise while\nUnited States.\nremaining entitled to its benefits.\n58\n59"
}