The two Puerto Rican unions affiliated to the International Union of Service Employees (SEIU), the General Union of Workers and the Puerto Rican Trade Union of Workers (SPT), joined in the intervention as a friend of the court in the case United States v. Vaello Madero where it will be decided, by the Supreme Court of the United States, if the federal program of insurance of Supplemental Income (SSI) violates the clause of Equal Protection of the Fifth Amendment of the United States when denying its benefits to the people who live in Puerto Rico and would qualify to receive the same.
In February 2019, the presiding judge of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, Gustavo A. Gelpí, ruled that “the exclusion of Puerto Rico from Social Security law violates the same protection of laws and the due process of law, ”a decision that was ratified in April 2020 by the First Circuit of Appeals in Boston. Both decisions were appealed by the Federal Department of Justice.
The brief presented to the High Judicial Forum was aimed at responding to the position taken by the United States Government where it argues that there is a rational basis for excluding Puerto Rico from Supplemental Income Insurance in the face of the fact that the fiscal autonomy that the island has allows the local government to decide, independently, to provide more aid to the poor and needy without having to resort to the federal program.
In his opposition to the extension of the program in Puerto Rico it is also argued that the federal Congress acted rationally in excluding Puerto Rico from the SSI for fear that the income that Puerto Ricans would receive in the receiving equal treatment would have a negative effect on the local economy.
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Faced with these arguments, the letter submitted by the unions argues about “the error of these assumptions and evidence, with precise data and specific facts, the invalidity of the premises indicated for not granting aid to citizens residing in the island “.
The writ states that the PROMISE Act and the Fiscal Control Board have “significantly limited the power of self-government and the aforementioned fiscal autonomy of the Associated Free State. It is specified that if the Government of Puerto Rico would want to reschedule funds to provide more financial aid to the people in need the Board would prevent it and would impose the fiscal priorities defined by the organism through the mechanism of the Fiscal Plan “.
It also establishes and argues in writing that the precarious economy of the island does not only allow the possibility of generating an excess of contributory income. It is clearly stated that, if for any particular circumstance the Government of Puerto Rico manages to raise an additional amount of revenue, the Fiscal Control Board will also reschedule these funds to pay them off the debt and in no way allow distributed to those who qualify to receive the grants.
Finally, it was argued that the benefits of SSI should be extended to Puerto Rico, not only for the 465,000 people who benefit from it, but also for the entire local economy, which would receive an injection of money that would contribute positively. to reduce the poverty rate on the Island, would help limit emigration and could even reduce the risk of Puerto Rico falling back into bankruptcy in the coming years as anticipated by prestigious economists and advisers to the Board itself.