For the first time, a United States Congressman has officially described his country's political relationship with Puerto Rico as “undermining the moral standing” of the United States in the world. This comment was made by Ron Wyden [en], a Democratic senator from Oregon and chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, the committee that holds jurisdiction over all issues in the Senate concerning U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico. In a committee hearing on August 1st, the senator made the following statement (which can be heard in this video [en], beginning at minute 0:25): After 115 years, it is clearly time for Puerto Rico to determine what political path it will take. The question of whether Puerto Rico should become a state or a sovereign nation, or whether there are other options, defines much of the political debate today on the island. Puerto Rico faces huge economic and social challenges. Per capita income is stuck at about half that of the poorest U. S. state and the violent crime rate is well above the national crime rate, and rising. The lack of resolution of Puerto Rico's status not only distracts from addressing these and other issues, it contributes to them. […] Puerto Rico must either exercise full self-government as a sovereign nation or achieve equality among the states of the Union. The current relationship undermines our country's moral standing in the world. Luego de 115 años, claramente es tiempo de que Puerto Rico determine qué vía política tomará. La cuestión de si Puerto Rico debe convertirse en un estado o en una nación soberana, o si existen otras opciones, define gran parte del debate hoy en la Isla. Puerto Rico enfrenta retos sociales y económicos enormes. El ingreso per cápita está estancado más o menos a la mitad del del estado más pobre de los EEUU y la tasa de crímenes violentos está muy por encima del promedio nacional, y aumenta cada vez más. La falta de resolución del estatus de Puerto Rico no solo distrae de atender estos y otros asuntos, sino que contribuye a ellos. […] Puerto Rico debe autogobernarse totalmente como un estado soberano, o lograr la igualdad entre los estados de la Unión. La relación actual socava la fuerza moral de nuestro país en el mundo. The committee hearing, chaired by Senator Wyden, was held in conjunction with the Puerto Rican status referendum which took place on November 2012. Symbols representing various political status options for Puerto Rico, as used on the ballot of the November 6, 2012 referendum: the star containing the number 51 represents Puerto Rico's inclusion as the 51st U.S. State; the native pitirre, or gray kingbird, represents commonwealth status; and the map of the Puerto Rican archipelago represents independence. The referendum resulted in a rejection of Puerto Rico's current political status, the so-called Estado Libre Asociado (ELA), also known as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, with 53.97% of constituents in favor of a change of status. But as to the question of which type of status the voters actually preferred for Puerto Rico, the results were not as clear. A cursory review of the data indicates that among the three status options, namely statehood (annexation), independence, and commonwealth status, statehood won out with 61.16% of the votes, followed by commonwealth status with 33.34%, and independence with 5.49%. However, if we include the 498,604 blank ballots submitted by many constituents as a symbol of protest over the voting process, the results look very different. The percentage for statehood is reduced dramatically to 44.4%, commonwealth status to 24.2%, and independence to 4%. To offer an idea of what these blank ballots represent, the commonwealth status received 454,768 votes. The option of Estado Libre Asociado in its current form was excluded from the ballot. President Obama did not dispatch an administerial representative to attend the Senate committee hearing. It is also worth noting that of the twenty-two senators on the committee, only three attended the hearing. It appears that the Obama administration has responded just as the U.S. government had expected all along. It would not be unreasonable to say that President Obama decided to ignore the results of the November referendum, as Charles R. Venator Santiago, writing for Latino Decisions [en], has suggested: President Obama’s request to fund a federal plebiscite for Puerto Rico sends a clear message that he does not recognize the outcome of the 2012 plebiscite […]. This position is consistent with earlier statements by President Obama indicating that he would only support an outcome that reflected a substantive majority of the vote (presumably at least a two-thirds majority).