Puerto Rico independence vote bill passes U.S. House

Puerto Rico's movement for greater self-government got a boost on Thursday in the U.S. House of Representatives, which passed a bill for a referendum on three potential futures although the measure had little chance of being taken up by the Senate, Qazet.az reports.

The Puerto Rico Status Act outlines terms for a binding referendum on the three options: full independence, U.S. statehood or sovereignty with formal U.S. association, similar to the Marshall Islands and Micronesia.

Democratic Representative Raul Grijalva, the bill's original sponsor, said that whether the measure gets a vote in the Senate or not, it will still set "an important historical precedent" for Puerto Rico.

The legislation "tells the people in Puerto Rico, our fellow U.S. citizens, that this election is going to be aboveboard and the consequences are going to be aboveboard," Grijalva told a House committee hearing on Wednesday night.