The Puerto Rico House of Representatives was set to approve on Thursday, November 12, with amendments, the permit reform bill the Senate endorsed in October, Representative Joel Franqui Atiles, vice chair of the House committee reviewing the measure, confirmed. Although the substitute for Senate bills 1173 and 1183 was not on the House’s first calendar of the day, an executive meeting decided to bring it to a vote on the last day for approving new legislation in the fourth ordinary session of the four-year term.
All we want is to go into the House chamber to listen to the legislative session, nothing more.
If passed, the House and Senate have until the following Tuesday to concur on the amendments presented and send a final text to Governor Jenniffer González for consideration and signature. Meanwhile, environmental groups denounced that Capitol staff denied entry to their members, who sought to watch the proceedings from the House gallery. "All we want is to go into the House chamber to listen to the legislative session, nothing more. We don’t have a demonstration, we’re not asking for anything more than to take part in the public process," said Hernaliz Vázquez Torres, director of Sierra Club Puerto Rico, who was accompanied by members of organizations including Amigxs del M.A.R., Defiende Cabo Rojo and Resiliency Law.
The 868-page measure approved by the Senate majority replaced Senate bills 1183 and 1173, filed respectively by the governor and Thomas Rivera Schatz. It received 17 votes in favor and 8 against. Three senators did not vote.