(Washington, DC, April 27, 2006) — Delegate to Congress Donna M. Christensen said today that the Puerto Rico status issue before the Committee of Resources is important and relevant to the Virgin Islands.  “Whatever course you take, even the process you adopted, will affect the rest of us,” said Christensen at the oversight hearing on the report by the President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status. The report, issued last December, provides for the future status of Puerto Rico and its relationship with the United States.

Christensen told the committee that a decision like status evolves and may take a long time.  “It cannot be forced, and in my opinion, that is what the Task Force Report and HR 4867 attempts to do.”  She expressed her support for HR 4963, the Puerto Rico Self Determination Act of 2006 which she says “opens the process up entirely for the people of Puerto Rico to decide the course and the ultimate status they desire.”

The delegate said that Puerto Rico “like the rest of us” has the ability to conduct a referendum, a convention or any process they decide on. “I would also think that having Congress dictate what that process should be would go against the grain of most Puerto Ricans, especially since it carries no guarantee that the Congress will automatically accept the outcome.”