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The House of Representatives of Puerto Rico (Spanish: ''Cámara de Representantes de Puerto Rico'') is the lower house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the bicameral territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The House, together with the Senate, control the legislative branch of the government of Puerto Rico. The structure and responsibilities of the House are defined in Article III of the Constitution of Puerto Rico, which vests all legislative power in the Legislative Assembly. Every bill must be passed by the Senate and by the House, and signed by the governor in order to become law. The House has exclusive power to initiate impeachments and bring an indictment. The constitution also establishes that the appointment of the Secretary of State and the Comptroller require the advice and consent of the House, with all other appointments confirmed by the Senate alone. Financially, all bills for raising revenue must originate in the House. Structurally, the House is normally composed of fifty-one representatives: forty who represent the constituent representative districts across the commonwealth (with one representative per district) and an additional eleven which are elected at-large.〕}} The House has been meeting since 1900, after the enactment of the Foraker Act established the body formally. The current session is the 29th House of Representatives of Puerto Rico which has a simple majority from the Popular Democratic Party; giving the party control over the House without political opposition except for constitutional amendments.〕 Currently the party does not control two-thirds of the House and therefore cannot propose constitutional amendments without opposition.}} The House of Representatives, along with its members and staff, is housed in the western half of the Capitol of Puerto Rico, namely in the Ernesto Ramos Antonini House Annex Building, the Antonio R. Barceló Building, and the Luis A. Ferré Building. == History == Created in 1900 as the House of Delegates under the Foraker Act, the lower body of the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly was the only elected body until the Senate was created in 1917 under the Jones-Shafroth Act, then creating a bicameral legislature. The House of Delegates was controlled by the Republican Party from its creation in 1900 through 1904. In January 1905, the House switched to control by the Union Party, which would remain in power until 1924. A coalition of the Republican Party and Socialist Party of Puerto Rico controlled the House until 1944, save for a brief period from 1941 to 1943 of the Popular Democratic Party. After the Popular Democratic Party's landslide victory in 1944, that party controlled the House until 1969, when the New Progressive Party won the House and the governorship, but not the Senate, creating Puerto Rico's first "split" government. Ángel Viera Martínez, a former prosecutor and freshman representative from San Juan, was elected to the first of three stints as Speaker. In 1973, the Popular Democratic Party reacquired control of the House but was ousted as the majority party in the 1976 elections, won by the New Progressive Party. Viera Martínez was elected in 1977, to his second stint as Speaker. As a result of the 1980 elections, the New Progressive Party had won 26 seats and the Popular Democratic Party 25, but the latter challenged the results of the 35th Representative District, creating a tie with each party holding 25 seats, pending the final results of that district.〔''PPD'' v. ''Barreto Pérez'', 119 DPR 199 (1981).〕 Since the new House in 1981 was tied, it was unable to elect a Speaker, as required, by an absolute majority. To complicate matters, Ramón Muñiz (PPD-32nd District) died on the House floor in January 1981 and Representative-elect Fernando Tonos Florenzán's election was invalidated due to him not having the Constitutionally required 25 years to serve in the House,〔''Nogueras'' v. ''Tonos Florenzán'', 110 DPR 356 (1980) and ''Tonos Florenzán'' v. ''Bernazard'', 111 DPR 546 (1981).〕 leaving the House with 25 New Progressives and 23 Popular Democrats. House Secretary Cristino Bernazard, who normally would have presided over the House only until it elected its new Speaker in its inaugural session, became the first unelected Acting Speaker of the House. During Bernazard's incumbency, he appointed co-chairs to the House standing committees and required that all House decisions and legislation be approved by consensus. After some political wrangling, in what became known as the Viera-Colberg Pact, the House elected Viera Martínez once again as Speaker for the remainder of 1981 and maverick Popular Democratic Rep. Severo Colberg Ramírez as Speaker from 1982 until 1984. In late 1981, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Popular Democratic candidate in the 35th District, and with the Popular Democrats finally filling in the two vacancies they had, that party gained control of the House, with a majority of 26. Even though the Popular Democratic Party retained the House in the 1984 general elections, Colberg was not re-elected Speaker, and instead José Ronaldo "Rony" Jarabo served as Speaker from 1985 to 1992. Jarabo was defeated in a primary in 1992, and as the New Progressive Party won the 1992 general elections, he was succeeded by the first woman Speaker, Zaida Hernandez Torres, who served until 1996, when she left the House to run for Mayor of San Juan. Hernandez's Speaker pro Tempore, Edison Misla Aldarondo, became Speaker in 1997. After he left office in 2000, he was convicted of corruption charges in federal and state courts. He was succeeded in office by Carlos Vizcarrondo during the 2001–2004 term. In 2005, as a Popular Democratic governor took office, the New Progressive Party controlled the Senate and the House, and José Aponte Hernández, a loyalist of former Governor Pedro Rosselló, was elected as Speaker of the House. In addition to the tension with the executive branch, Aponte's term was tinged with greater-than-average tension with the Senate, in which his support for Rossello's bid to oust Senate President Kenneth McClintock, whom he called a "traitor" to his party, took him to lead over 20 New Progressive representatives to converge on the Senate floor in opposition to McClintock's permanence as Senate President, considered by many the all-time historical low-point in Senate-House relations. Aponte was defeated for re-election as Speaker in the House caucus held after the 2008 general elections, and Jenniffer A. González Colón became the Speaker, taking office on January 12, 2009. The current Speaker, as of 2013, is Jaime Perelló. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「House of Representatives of Puerto Rico」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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