PRINTER'S NO. 2851

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE RESOLUTION

No.

693

Session of

2015

INTRODUCED BY ACOSTA, THOMAS, SCHLOSSBERG, ROZZI, BULLOCK,

SCHWEYER, PASHINSKI, MURT, CALTAGIRONE, O'BRIEN, FARINA,

M. DALEY, MAHONEY, YOUNGBLOOD, W. KELLER, STURLA, KORTZ,

WHEREAS, In June 2015, Puerto Rico's Governor Alejandro

Garcia Padilla declared that Commonwealth's $72 million debt

"not payable," with the island effectively running out of cash

for the government to continue operating; and

WHEREAS, This economic crisis has forced a second "Great

Migration," much like after World War II, with more than 250,000

Puerto Ricans leaving the island since 2010; and

WHEREAS, Puerto Rico has taken extraordinary measures to

address the situation, including shuttering more than 100 public

schools, delaying people's tax refunds, increasing the

by providing Puerto Rico: the right to declare for Chapter 9

bankruptcy; health care equity, eliminating the annual

Medicaid/Mi Salud funding cap; and tax reform to institute tax

policies that foster economically diverse and living wage job

creation, which will create sustainable growth on the island;

and

WHEREAS, While the Earned Income Tax Credit is the nation's

largest anti-poverty cash assistance program that increases the

ability of workers in low-paying jobs to support themselves and

their families, the tax credit does not apply to Puerto Rico;

for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, which was later taken from the

territory, and has since limited its ability to restructure the

island's debt on its own; and

WHEREAS, In October 2015, over 400 Puerto Rican elected

officials and community leaders, representing many different

organizations nationwide, convened in Orlando, Florida, to

discuss the fiscal crisis and a national call was issued to

establish "Unidos Para Puerto Rico" as a means to unite the

Puerto Rican Diaspora and the coalition of Puerto Rican elected

officials with the purpose of promoting a national campaign to

Philadelphia met to discuss how Pennsylvania would engage in

this important education campaign and to organize PA 4 PR, as a

local call to action for Pennsylvania, asking community leaders,

clergy, elected officials and allies to join the national call

to action; and

WHEREAS, On Wednesday, December 2, 2015, hundreds of Puerto

Rican community leaders from Pennsylvania and across the country

traveled to Washington, DC, in a national call to action and

hosted a press conference and a full lobbying day with members

of Congress to promote a national Puerto Rican agenda and call

organizations, labor, women, LGBT, African-American and faith-

based entities in respectfully asking the Congress and the

President of the United States to address the humanitarian and

fiscal crisis in Puerto Rico and the inequalities against 3.5

million United States citizens. This crisis is emotional, moral,

economic, political and social to many of us. Understanding the

historic past and our moral obligation today to declare an

absolute repudiation to congressional neglect to Puerto Rico and

its citizens is a reflection of humanity and solidarity; and

WHEREAS, We need to act now to extend equal treatment to

population in the United States, after New York, New Jersey and

Florida, who are united in a call for action; therefore be it

RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives join the

legislative action by City Councils in Philadelphia, Chicago,

New York City, Cleveland, Orlando and New Jersey standing in

unity on the national call to urge the Congress and the

President of the United States to provide Puerto Rico with the

tools to create a pathway to economic recovery.