Speech #880151223

Mr. Chairman. that is a rather devious way of getting Cuba into this debate. but the intention was obviously to include the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico on page 40 relating to the literacy tests. If you will read the language presently in the bill. you will see that the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is left out. That very simply means that the Puerto Ricans who live in this country and the Puerto Ricans who vote in this country. all of them being citizens of this country. are not permitted to have the rebuttable presumption as contained in the literacy test section and are not permitted to have the rebuttable presumption of literacy when they go through the sixth grade simply because they went through the sixth grade in Puerto Rico. That does not make any sense whatsoever. I raised this question in the full committee as to why Puerto Ricans should not be included In a right to have the rebuttable presumption that if they went through the sixth grade in Puerto Rico they should have the right to vote in the United States the same as any other American citizen.