from http://www.capwiz.com/proenglish/attach ... Lv14n2.pdf

Puerto Rico plebiscite bill faces
possible House action
On April 22nd, the House Committee on Natural
Resources passed H.R. 900, The Puerto Rico
Democracy Act of 2007. The action clears the
way for the House leadership to bring the bill to
the floor for a vote at any time.
Introduced by Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY), H.R.
900 would require Puerto Ricans to hold a
nationwide referendum for the fourth time since
1967 to indicate whether they want to become a
state or remain a commonwealth. The bill is
backed by pro-statehood interests unhappy that
Puerto Ricans have rejected statehood during
elections held in 1967, 1993, and 1998.
ProEnglish opposes H.R. 900 because it does
not require Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico to
adopt English as the sole official language of its
government operations as a pre-condition to
statehood.
In 1811, President James Madison signed the
Louisiana Enabling Act that admitted Louisiana
as a state. But the Act required the largely
French-speaking territory to adopt English as
the language of its government. Admitting
Puerto Rico without requiring official English
would be unprecedented and would lead to
immediate demands for the U.S. government to
operate in Spanish as well as English.
In addition to its failure to require English,
ProEnglish objects because the plebiscite the
bill calls for has a two-stage voting process that
is rigged in favor of a pro-statehood vote.