President Ford to ask Congress to make Puerto Rico the nation’s 51st state in 1977

President Ford said yesterday that he would ask the new Congress to make Puerto Rico the nation’s 51st state.

In a bombshell announcement, Ford said that the move would permanently seal “bonds of friendship, tradition, dignity and individual freedom” between the Caribbean commonwealth and the mainland.

Ford’s decision caught Puerto Ricans by surprise. It was an unwelcome move to many who favor either independence or continued commonwealth status.

The President’s plan rejected a 1975 proposal by a joint U.S.-Puerto Rican commission that called for a “compact of permanent union” providing “maximum self-government and self-determination” to the island, which was ceded to the United States by Spain after the Spanish-American War in 1898.

Rejected by Voters

Puerto Rico, with a population of 2.8 million, was a U.S. territory until it became a commonwealth on July 3, 1952. In 1967, the island’s voters soundly rejected statehood in favor of remaining commonwealth status.

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens but cannot vote for President.

Submission of the legislation Ford promised yesterday would be the first in a long series of steps needed to make Puerto Rico a state. Ford leaves office Jan. 20.

The announcement came two days before the inauguration of Puerto Rico’s new governor, Carlos Romero Barcelo. The outgoing governor, Rafael Hernandez Colon, an opponent of statehood, issued a statement saying that Ford’s plan “does not correspond to the will of the Puerto Rican people.”

“Appropriate Status”

(In an interview in San Juan with the Associated Press yesterday, before Ford’s announcement, Romero Barcelo said that his administration would “try to convince people this (statehood) is best for them.” But he added: “I have a commitment not to be pushing for statehood until we are well on the way to economic recovery.”)

“I believe that the appropriate status for Puerto Rico is statehood,” Ford said in a written statement issued at his vacation headquarters in this ski resort.

“I propose, therefore, that the people of Puerto Rico and the Congress of the United States begin now to take those steps which will result in statehood for Puerto Rico.

“I will recommend to the 95th Congress the enactment of legislation providing for the admission of Puerto Rico as a state of the Union.”

Ford was asked why he was proposing statehood now, rather than leaving the issue to President-elect Carter.

“Because I’m President until Jan. 20,” Ford said.

“It seems to me it was a very apropos time, so no one could accuse me of any political — not ambitions — but political motives. And I certainly hope it will be well received there (in Puerto Rico) and well received by the American people.”

Ford said that he decided to recommend statehood because “it seemed to me that the people of Puerto Rico had spoken in the last election, with a candidate for governor, a candidate for the House of Representatives.”

President Ford confers with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Treasury Secretary William Simon at Economic Summit Conference at Doroado Beach, Puerto Rico.

“Bonds of Friendship”

“Both (candidates) prevailed, and they both were sympathetic (to statehood), which would be a good reflection of the attitude of the Puerto Rican people,” he said. “So it seemed to me that we ought to take an initiative… in Washington to indicate our full support for statehood for Puerto Rico.”

In his statement, Ford said: “The common bonds of friendship, tradition, dignity and individual freedom have joined the people of the United States and the people of Puerto Rico.

“It is now time to make these bonds permanent through statehood, in accordance with the concept of mutual acceptance which has historically governed the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States.”

As outlined by Deputy Press Secretary John Carlson, the legislation would be submitted first to the House and Senate Interior committees for extended hearings.

Passage of the legislation would require a simple majority of both the House and the Senate, Carlson said. He said that Puerto Rico would have to adopt a state constitution and that Puerto Ricans, would have to vote to join the union.’

The final step would be for the President — by then, Carter — to issue a declaration granting Puerto Rico statehood.

Published via News wire services

(Originally published by the Daily News on Jan 1, 1977.)
President Ford to ask Congress to make Puerto Rico the nation’s 51st state in 1977