A Visit, An Opportunity

The announcement that the White House Interagency Working Group on Puerto Rico will have a public hearing next week should be taken as an opportunity for diverse political and social sectors of the country to present ideas directly to the executive branch of the U.S. government. This is the first time that a White House working group will convene a public forum on the island, though in the past it has held a closed meeting on the island. The hearing, to be held on March 3 in the Convention Center of Puerto Rico, should serve to bring up matters that affect the political, economic and social development of the Puerto Rican people. That is to say, it should not focus exclusively on the island’s political status in order to take advantage of the participation of a diversity of citizens’ groups, beyond the political groups that typically enjoy the role of exclusive representatives of the people when it comes to the affairs of the island in the federal capital.

In October of last year, the White House announced that President Barack Obama was extending the prerogatives of the Working Group to allow it to analyze the situation of Puerto Rico in terms of economic development, education, health, energy and the political future of the island. This group, which includes representatives of distinct agencies of the executive branch of the United States, should produce a report on the matters assigned to it by October of this year. The co-president of the group, Cecilia Muñoz, has said that it will work with an eye towards the future, which would appear to rule out the possibility that its work will be based on reports produced in the previous administration of George Bush.

This week the political leadership of the island will be in Washington, D.C. lobbying on the matter of [Puerto Rico’s political] status, since consideration of the bill put forward by Pedro Pierluisi, resident commissioner in Washington, is still pending, along with other matters such as health care reform. It would be beneficial if next week other voices besides those of political organizations were heard, in order to enrich the information gathering process of the White House Working Group.