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{
    "localId": "1554455",
    "label": "Puerto Rico - Compact of Permanent Union, October 1975",
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    "id": "1554455",
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    "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"
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    "subjects": [
        "Puerto Rico",
        "Intergovernmental relations",
        "Territories and possessions"
    ],
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        "logicalDate": "1975-10-31",
        "month": 10,
        "year": 1975
    },
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{
    "seq": 66,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/ford/grf-0010/569572/1554455/1554455_Page_067_Image_0001.jpg",
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    "ocrText": "Several toward witnesses argued that the presidential vote is a\nto vote. Let us now enlarge that right enhance for the and benefit honor of U.S.\nstep 50 statehood. Apparently the reason is that\ncitizens\nright residing in Puerto Rico and to our\nStates enjoy the right to vote for President and Vice\nAmerican democracy.\nThey miss the milestone significance of the 23d\nSenator Henry M. Jackson, a member of the Advisory Group,\nextending the right to citizens residing in the District damendment\nnot join in the foregoing report. The separate views of Senator\nwhich is not a State. Furthermore, their argument\nJackson did are presented below:\nmuch like the predictions in 1917 that U.S. for\nPuerto Ricans would mean early statehood. Fifty-four years the\ngone by and neither the fear nor the hope of the forecasters have\nIV. SEPARATE VIEWS OF SENATOR HENRY M. JACKSON\nmaterialized.\nhas\nconcur in the conclusions of the group that every qualified\nIn reality, the presidential vote is perfectly compatible\nof the United States, regardless of residence, should enjoy\nstatehood as well as with an improved Commonwealth. It will with\ncitizen right to vote for President and Vice President of the United\neven close the door to independence if that is to be the will, not\nStates. the It is inexcusable that there still exists a substantial number\nmatter how remote it now seems, of the majority of the Puerto no\nof citizens who cannot legally exercise this fundamental right.\nRicans. It is thus the kind of forward step in the growth of Puerto\nIn my view, it is not feasible to extend this right to Puerto\nRico's status that deserves unanimous approval.\nRicans without, at the same time, extending it to all qualified\ncitizens. For example, one cannot conceive of conferring the right\nto\nvote on U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico, while their fellow citizens\nTHE TASK AHEAD\nin the Virgin Islands remain unable to vote.\nThe group's report suggests the \"probability\" that attainment\nIt is difficult to predict how long it may take to attain this\nof the vote may require a constitutional amendment. The group's\nexpansion of the voting power to U.S. citizens resident in Puerto\nown consultant, Dean Helfeld, was less tentative in concluding\nRico. The probability is that its attainment will require a constitu-\nthat \"only one constitutional route is open and that route ines-\ntional amendment. The amendment process requires approval by\ncapably involves the amending process.\" Dean Helfeld also cited\ntwo-thirds of the Congress and three-fourths of the 50 States.\nthe \"gauntlet of formidable hazards\" awaiting the presidential\nNevertheless, the argument that the task should not be attempted\nvote for Puerto Ricans.\nbecause a resulting delay could change the basic attitudes of U.S.\nThere are serious obstacles, both constitutional and political,\ncitizens in Puerto Rico with respect to permanent association with\nto securing the right to vote in presidential elections for Puerto\nthe United States seems to us to be a defeatist position as well as\nRicans. These obstacles are not insurmountable but they should be\none for which there is no justification in the long history of the\nrecognized and discussed realistically. It would be most un-\npolitical development of Puerto Rico in association with the\nfortunate if-through failure to air these problems-expectations\nUnited States.\nwere aroused prematurely, only to be frustrated by years of delay.\nWe find the presidential vote feasible and just. We find the\nWith respect to the group's proposal for an immediate referen-\nmoment opportune for action by Puerto Rico and the United\ndum on the vote issue in Puerto Rico, it is not at all clear that such\nStates. Essential to achieve this fundamental step in political\na referendum is required because it involves a change in the\ndevelopment is the voice of a united people demanding its political\nrelations between the United States and Puerto Rico. It may well\nrights; and the vote for President and Vice President is one of the\nbe argued that a constitutional amendment conferring the right to\nmost basic of those rights. We believe the presidential vote is fully\nvote on all qualified U.S. citizens does not change relations\ncompatible with the political aspirations of the people of Puerto\nbetween the United States and Puerto Rico, but simply confers a\nRico who have made great strides in their democratic use of the\n123\n122"
}