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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Pierluisi Introduces Legislation to Increase Opportunities For Residents of Puerto Rico at Military Service Academies

WASHINGTON, DC- The Resident Commissioner, Pedro Pierluisi, today introduced legislation to increase the number of nominations that the Office of the Resident Commissioner is authorized to make to the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the U.S. Air Force Academy, so that the number of slots available to residents of Puerto Rico more closely reflects the size of the Island’s population.

The bill, H.R. 1000, entitled The Puerto Rico Opportunity to Serve Act, would increase to 15 the number of nominations that the Resident Commissioner can make to each of the three service academies. Under current law, the Resident Commissioner is authorized to nominate only five students to each service academy. By contrast, every state has a minimum of 15 nominations to each academy.

“I see no principled reason why a state like South Carolina, whose population size is comparable to Puerto Rico’s, is authorized to make 40 nominations to an academy, while the Resident Commissioner—Puerto Rico’s sole representative in Congress—can nominate only 5 students to an academy. Even the state of Wyoming, which has roughly 500,000 residents, can make 15 nominations to each academy. Puerto Rico is home to nearly four million American citizens and the Island has a rich tradition of military service, which is why I believe it is absolutely essential that we increase the number of opportunities available to Puerto Rico residents at the service academies,” said the Resident Commissioner.

Generally, a student can only gain admission to one of the military service academies by means of a nomination from their Representative or Senator, or from the President or Vice-President of the United States. The increase contemplated in The Puerto Rico Opportunity to Serve Act would not impact the number of nominations available to any other U.S. state or territory.

“The service academies are extremely prestigious and open up countless personal and professional opportunities to their graduates. Residents of Puerto Rico have proven themselves willing to sacrifice for our nation in its armed forces, with at least 200,000 having served in military conflicts since 1917. They should be treated in a fair and equitable manner with respect to academy admissions,” said Pierluisi.

“By limiting my office to only five nominations per academy, the current law operates to deprive the nation of the service of many other highly-motivated and talented students, to the ultimate detriment of the country,” added the Resident Commissioner.