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Anibal Acevedo Is Not Puerto Rico’s Two Billion Dollar Man
Resident Commissioner Anibal Acevedo Vila ("commonwealth" party/D) claimed responsibility this week for gaining an additional $2 billion in federal funding for Puerto Rico over the next six years. He asserted that:
- more than half of the $1,999,390,000 -- $1,048,740,000 -- would come from his legislation in the 2001 revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act;
- more than a quarter -- $541,500,000 -- would come from his provision for the Nutrition Assistance Program for Puerto Rico in the extension of the Farm Bill;
- $205 million would come from appropriations he sponsored for Tren Urbano, the commuter rail system for Bayamon, Guaynabo, and San Juan;
- $100 million would come from his proposal to appropriate more money for public housing; and
- $100 million would come from his legislation to extend a higher amount of transfers of federal taxes on rum produced in Puerto Rico and foreign countries.
Acevedo bragged to reporters, "I worked for it, either by pushing to amend laws or propose new bills. Had I not been there, the hike would not be here . . . If Congress was working on education reform, I struggled to include Puerto Rico and get equal treatment. The same goes with the farming reform and so forth."
A review of the history of the legislation, however, contradicted Acevedo’s boasts.
Most of the $1,048,740,000 for elementary and secondary schools -- $914 million -- is for phasing in equal treatment for Puerto Rico in programs for needy children. The record shows that Acevedo played no real role in the enactment of the provision. Other people are responsible for it.
The proposal was made and advanced by then-President Clinton at the request of Acevedo’s predecessor, Carlos Romero Barcelo (statehood party/D). The Clinton White House made the proposal as a priority in the revision of the elementary and secondary education law.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives agreed to half the increase. The Democratic minority of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Public Welfare -- led by Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA), like the Democratic minority of the House Education and Labor Committee led by George Miller (D-CA), advocated the Clinton phase-in to equal funding. The overall legislation was blocked in 2000, however, by the Senate Republican majority.
Its passage became a priority for President Bush in 2001. His decision to work out the bill with Kennedy and Miller assured enactment of a Puerto Rico increase. The switch of the Senate Majority to the Democrats later that year resulted in the approval of the full Clinton proposal due to the efforts of Kennedy, Miller, and others.
Acevedo jumped on the bandwagon after all of the key decision-makers in Congress and the federal executive branch had already agreed on the Clinton increase. Just before the agreement became public, Acevedo tried to announce the increased as his proposal -- and even sponsored a bill to do what had already been agreed to -- but Washington correspondents of the Puerto Rico news media pointed out that it had already been agreed upon.
Acevedo also had no real role in the other funding increases in the education law. Increases, such as those for school construction and for education for handicapped children, were also made by Clinton and other players, and passed due to the efforts of Clinton, Bush, Kennedy, and Miller, among others.
Acevedo contributed more to the $541.5 million Nutrition Assistance Program increase, but he only had a role in 9% of it and he was not the key player in obtaining that portion.
Ninety-one percent of the increase was merely a continuation of existing law. Acevedo sought and obtained appointment to the House Agriculture Committee as his one major committee appointment to enlarge this virtually automatic increase. But the House turned a deaf ear to his efforts. In fact, the committee wrote language that defined "the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico" as a "territory or possession" – an anathema to ‘commonwealther’ Acevedo.
Outgoing Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA), who was really responsible for enlarging the increase, had been working with Puerto Ricans of every local party to increase the territory’s nutrition grant for a decade. He made the proposal that would up increasing the $1.4 billion a year grant (adjusted for inflation) by $10 million a year for the five years. Acevedo worked on this increase -- less than a tenth of what he claimed credit for -- but his role was secondary.
Acevedo also worked on the appropriations for Tren Urbano but was not responsible for the funding. In the first place, the commitment to the funding had already been made by the federal government -- through an initiative by President Clinton taken in response to a request from then Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Rossello (statehood party/D).
The Bush Administration and congressional appropriators continued to fulfill this commitment over the past two years. When competing demands from transportation projects in States threatened to delay some of the funding, Representative Jose Serrano (D-NY) won 69 million dollars for the project that would otherwise have been delayed. Others also played a role but Acevedo was not a real factor in the decision.
The increased housing funds similarly flowed from a commitment made by the Clinton Administration to Rossello, to phase in equal funding for Puerto Rico in the public housing subsidy. The commitment was made after a long campaign by Rossello that included a lawsuit against the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Acevedo’s role was merely to be in office as the increases took effect.
The higher amount of transfers of the federal tax on rum was another case of an extension of a generally agreed upon federal policy. President Clinton had proposed a full transfer for the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico for five years. Then House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer limited the amount of the increase slightly and limited its duration to two and a half years.
When Archer retired from the Congress, Representatives from the Virgin Islands, as well as Puerto Rico Senate Minority Leader Kenneth McClintock (statehood party/D) and others, proposed an extension. Acevedo sought a transfer of the full amount of collections of the tax on a permanent basis -- a proposal consistent with his contention of Puerto Rico’s ‘fiscal autonomy.’ Acevedo’s proposal was rejected. The extension advocated by McClintock and others was accepted.
Acevedo also claimed credit for $13 million in Navy assistance to the community on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. However, the commitment of the funds and $27 million more had been obtained from President Clinton by Governor Rossello, and the monies were appropriated by Congress during the Clinton Administration. The funds were part of the Federal-Commonwealth agreement on the future of the Navy Department’s range on Vieques, which Clinton and Rossello worked out with Navy and Marine Corps officers and the Congress. Key players in Congress included the top Democrats on the House and Senate House Armed Services Committees, Representative Ike Skelton (MO) and Senator Carl Levin (MI), House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK), and the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee's top Democrat John Murtha (PA).
Actions by Rossello’s successor, Sila Calderon ("commonwealth" party/no national party) and Vieques Mayor Damaso Serrano, who is also a member of Acevedo’s party, caused the Navy to halt the spending of nearly $22 million of the funds. Their actions in frustrating the Navy while it offered assistance to the Vieques community were committed out of fear that the aid might improve the image of the Navy there.
While Acevedo, Calderon, and Mayor Serrano were fighting the agreement -- including the aid -- Skelton and fellow Armed Services Committee Democrat Gene Taylor (MS), along with two of the strongest critics of Calderon’s Vieques actions, Senate Armed Services Committee Member James Inhofe (R-OK) and James Hansen (R-UT), pressed for release of the $22 million.
Skelton finally won the commitment from Navy Secretary Gordon England to spend the funds. Acevedo’s main involvement was to announce the decision.
Budget Debate Holding Up Vieques Range Replacement Plan
In a letter to President Bush last week, Governor Calderon complained that the Department of the Navy has failed to formally approve an alternative plan concerning the use of the Vieques range.
Federal law authorizes the Navy to replace the Vieques range when it has located an alternative that would allow at least equal training for combat amphibious invasions, a purpose that until now has not been replicated at other locations. Calderon asked the President to intervene, saying that the Navy has had the alternative plan since the summer but has not yet formally approve it. The replacement of the Vieques range is the ultimate goal of many Puerto Ricans.
Speaking with a reporter, Resident Commissioner Acevedo echoed Calderon’s letter. "That they have found alternative sites is common knowledge. They just need to put it in writing," he said.
UPDATE outlined the key elements of the tentative plan for replacing the range months ago, which involves computer simulated targets in open ocean as well as other ranges. So why hasn’t the plan been formally approved and sent to the president and the Congress?
First, the plan needed to win acceptance by the top officers of the Navy and Marine Corps as well as Navy Secretary England. Recently, the plan has been held up by a debate about where to find the money for its hundreds of millions of dollars price tag. The debate has concerned whether the Navy Department would get additional funds for the move, or whether it would have to pay for it out of existing planned budget levels over the next few years.
The answer as of this writing seems to be that the Navy will have to find the money within its planned budget levels. The issue should be resolved shortly, certainly in time for Bush’s submission of his budget for the fiscal year that begins October 1 to the Congress early next month.
Samoa Order Undermines Puerto Rico "Commonwealth" Goal
One of the goals of ‘commonwealthers’ like Governor Calderon in seeking autonomy from federal policy goals, is control over the territory’s borders. Unlike some other "commonwealth" proposals, this goal is not an impossible one under the U.S. Constitution. In fact, all four other territories are outside the ‘customs territory’ of the U.S. (the nation’s foreign products entry area) and two control foreign entries of individuals.
Control of foreign product entries is high on Calderon’s "commonwealth" agenda. Puerto Rico commonwealthers have long aspired to control foreign entries of individuals as well. It would also be possible under Calderon’s "commonwealth" plan.
A recent order by the territory of American Samoa’s attorney general is the latest blow to the Puerto Rico "commonwealth" goal of control of entry of foreign individuals. The order barred entry into the territory to individuals "of Middle Eastern descent" and ordered officials and airlines to "take special note" of visitors with "Middle Eastern surnames and features."
The order was issued for security reasons related to concerns about Middle Eastern terrorism, but it was criticized by national Arab American activists as ‘racial profiling’ discrimination. It was challenged in Samoan court by a Samoan resident of Middle Eastern descent.
Samoa’s attorney general initially amended his order to exclude territorial residents, but his amendment failed to quell the controversy. Last month it came to the attention of officials and others in Washington. After a critical Washington Post article and advice from federal officials, the territory’s attorney general revised the order late last month. It now bans entry to citizens of 24 countries including Southeast Asian nations in which al Qaeda terror cells are believed to be located.
The flap is the latest but not the greatest example of the reason that federal officials oppose granting other territories immigration control powers. That distinction goes to the immigration policies of the other island territory that uses the word "Commonwealth" in its official name, the Northern Mariana Islands.
Federal immigration laws were not extended to the Northern Marianas when the islands became a U.S. territory under a 1975 agreement. Local leaders asked to have the islands at least temporarily excluded because of its small population and location. They were concerned that the location, which is near the Philippines, would attract so many Asian immigrants when it became U.S. soil that the 14,000 indigenous residents would be overwhelmed.
Within a decade, however, Marianas leaders were promoting the islands a foothold on U.S. soil for clothing manufacturers in China and other countries that faced restrictive U.S. market quotas and tariffs. The scheme relied upon the non-extension of federal minimum wage as well as immigration laws and provisions enabling Marianas products to enter the U.S. market feely even though the territory is outside the customs territory of the U.S.
Marianas officials have used the non-extension of federal immigration laws to allow foreign clothing and other workers to enter and work in the islands but never become permanent residents or citizens. The territory’s population is now about 60,000, with 35,000 being foreign workers. Local leaders do not consider the indigenous population overwhelmed because the ‘temporary’ workers have no power in the community. The workers are paid very low rates, and employers have subjected a substantial number to physical as well as wage abuse. Complaining workers have quickly been sent back to their home countries. The situation has attracted critical worldwide news media attention and protests from the national governments of some of the workers.
President Clinton and the U.S. Senate have tried to extend federal immigration and wage laws to the territory as well as to impose barriers to products manufactured with underpaid foreign workers, but the bills have been blocked by incoming House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (D-TX).
Federal officials have also, however, opposed ideas for exempting other territories from immigration laws. This opposition has been most publicly expressed by the administrations of President Bush’s father and President Clinton in response to proposals from the territory of Guam (the southern Mariana island) to take over limited immigration functions from the federal government in the context of "commonwealth" legislation.
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