Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) plans to retire at the end of the current session of Congress after more than three decades in office. Born in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, in a family of nine children, she was the first person in her family to earn a college degree and went on to become the first Puerto Rican woman to serve in Congress. She was the first Latina to serve as Ranking Member of a full House committee and the first Latina to chair a full Congressional committee. While she represents New York’s 7th District, including parts of Brooklyn and Queens, she always strove to provide a voice for Puerto Rico, whose three million U.S. citizens have just one non-voting member in Congress.
Velazquez on political status
Most of the Puerto Rico-focused bills Velazquez introduced were about providing economic assistance and parity for the territory, such as the Puerto Rico Nutrition Equity Act and Puerto Rico Health Care Fairness, Accountability, and Beneficiary Access Act. However, she also introduced the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act at least four times during her career. This bill called for a constitutional convention to propose and choose from the largest possible range of status options, including initially the now discredited “commonwealth” concept.
In a March 2026 interview, Rep. Nydia Velázquez described the evolution in her understanding of Puerto Rico’s political status. “I didn’t think the current status was a colonial status,” she acknowledged. “But the Supreme Court, in different cases, has concluded that the U.S. Congress has total jurisdiction over Puerto Rico, and the fact that Congress created a fiscal board to deal with the public debt of Puerto Rico, all that educated me. And today I say we have a moral obligation, as a country that wants to liberate other countries or impose liberation: What about our own backyard? What about Puerto Rico?”
“We can’t be lecturing about democracy when we still have millions of subjects: 3.2 million Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico and another 6 million that were forced to migrate to the United States because the economic conditions are such that they were hopeless,” she continued. “My position today is that the most important responsibility of Congress is to provide a vehicle for the people of Puerto Rico to determine their political future, what type of relationship they want with the United States.”
The Puerto Rico Status Act
Velázquez worked with Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, a Republican and then the Resident Commissioner for Puerto Rico, Congressman Darren Soto (D-FL), Steny Hoyer (D-MD), and other supporters of a variety of political status options to create the Puerto Rico Status Act (PRSA). This was a compromise bill giving Island voters a choice among three status options: statehood, independence, and independence with free association.
Velázquez was instrumental not only in crafting the bill, but also in shepherding it through the House, where it passed in December, 2022 but died in the Senate. It has been re-introduced since then, and there is discussion about introducing it again in this session of Congress, but it has not become law. Nonetheless, Velázquez’s efforts made history and will continue to be remembered as an essential part of her legacy.
“I am not going to lend myself to anyone’s political games in Puerto Rico,” she said to reporters from El Nuevo Dia. “This is an issue that must be treated with the respect and consideration it deserves. And, to solve Puerto Rico’s colonial problem, we have to have a commitment on the part of both parties.”
photo courtesy of Wikimedia
