Panel to Study Puerto Rico’s Future Status

President Clinton created a national task force Saturday to study whether Puerto Rico should become a state, an independent country or continue as a U.S. commonwealth.

The President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status will “ensure official attention to and facilitate action on matters related to proposals for Puerto Rico’s status and the process by which an option can be realized,” Clinton said in his executive order.

The president said the task force will keep up an ongoing discussion with Puerto Rico’s governor, political parties and other groups that advocate a change in the island’s status. “The dialogue shall seek to clarify the options for Puerto Rico’s future status and enable Puerto Ricans to choose among those options,” Clinton said.

The task force will be made up of members or designees of the president’s Cabinet and the co-chairmen of the president’s Interagency Group on Puerto Rico.

The committee must report back to the president by May 1.

Both President-elect George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore said during the campaign for president that they supported creation of a task force to study the Puerto Rican issue.

Residents of the island are divided over what status they desire. Statehood was barely rejected by voters in nonbinding referendums in 1993 and 1998. In the last vote, the status quo squeaked by with just over 50%.

The United States took possession of the Caribbean island as booty at the end of the Spanish-American War.

Puerto Rico’s 3.8 million people are U.S. citizens who can be drafted into the U.S. military but are barred from voting for president and have no voting representation in Congress. They do not pay most federal taxes, though Washington sends down about $13 billion a year, nearly a third of the island’s official gross domestic product.