Connecticut’s U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy were among a group of congressional leaders to back legislation Wednesday that would empower residents of Puerto Rico to vote on the island’s political status.

Blumenthal and Murphy appeared alongside Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi and other proponents of the Puerto Rico Status Act during a mid-day press conference in Washington, D.C.

The bill would resolve the island’s current territorial status through a binding vote that would allow its residents to choose between statehood, independence, or sovereignty in free association with the United States. During the press conference, Blumenthal and Murphy cited Connecticut’s thriving Puerto Rican community.

“It shouldn’t shock anyone that you have both of Connecticut’s senators here today,” Murphy said. “We are home to more than 288,000 Connecticut residents of Puerto Rican descent—the highest density of Puerto Rican heritage anywhere in the country—and we are damn proud of that.”

“The senators co-sponsoring Senate Bill 3231 have all decided to be on the right side of history and answer the call to provide full democracy to the more than 3.2 million American citizens in Puerto Rico in accordance with the U.S. Constitution,” Pierluisi said.

“One of the things we’ve learned from previous debates around statehood in particular is that oftentimes when states come in and everyone assumes they’re always going to be Republican or they’re always going to be Democrat, then the voters prove themselves to be independent,” Heinrich said.

While the legislation leaves Puerto Rico’s eventual status up to the island’s residents, Blumenthal said he favoured the statehood option. He described feelings of despair in the weeks after Hurricane Maria left much of the island without power in 2017 and again in 2020, when an earthquake devastated its infrastructure.