Washington D. C. - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is seeking a deal on a consensus Democratic bill on Puerto Rico’s political status, an effort that increases the possibilities that a decision to call a voting session in the Natural Resources Committee may be postponed until 2022.

Hoyer has been in talks with Puerto Ricans Nydia Velázquez and Darren Soto, who are the authors of the two bills before the Natural Resources Committee. These proposals seek to put a process on Puerto Rico’s political future on track.

“(Hoyer) is working a negotiation with me and Congresswoman Velázquez. We are going to give that a little time,” Soto said Tuesday in a brief interview with El Nuevo Día.

A spokeswoman for Hoyer said the representative “does not comment on private conversations. But, she said, “Hoyer continues to advocate for the resolution of Puerto Rico’s status and remains a steadfast friend of our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico.”

For years Hoyer has supported statehood for Puerto Rico. This Congress he is a co-sponsor of H.R. 1522 - introduced by Soto and Resident Commissioner in Washington Jenniffer González, a Republican - seeking a yes-or-no referendum on statehood, which would be tied to a process of admitting the island as a state.

But the Democratic leadership finds itself in a caucus divided on Puerto Rico’s political status, at a time when they have a tight majority in the House (221-213).

Velázquez and her colleague Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, (both New York), are the co-authors of H.R. 2070 seeking to bind Congress to a Status Convention and a referendum on non-territorial alternatives.

Soto’s legislation is co-sponsored by 59 Democrats and 17 Republicans, this week Democrats Lisa Blunt Rochester (Delaware) and Lizzie Fletcher (Texas) supported his measure. Both bills now have the same number of co-sponsors.

76 Democrats support Velazquez’s legislation, including Ocasio Cortez, as co-author.

“I talk regularly with Nydia and Hoyer,” Soto said of the ongoing conversations.

According to the Florida representative, if a deal with Velázquez is not reached, then he will go forward with his bill 1522, which he believes has the votes to pass in December or early 2022.

Last July, Grijalva told El Nuevo Día about his idea to bring both bills to a vote before the end of the year. Grijalva has not commented publicly on the voting session recently.

“I can say with confidence that our bill would be narrowly approved. Their bill (Velázquez and Ocasio Cortez’s) would be narrowly defeated,” Soto said at a pro-statehood panel he participated in this week, organized by the National Puerto Rican Equality Coalition (NAPREC).

Soto recalled that only three Republicans on the Natural Resources Committee - including Commissioner González - support the pro-statehood bill. “We need them to help the Resident Commissioner, who is doing everything she can to get more Republican votes,” he said.

Previously, Soto indicated that he is open to consensus legislation. He has also warned that there are three status alternatives: the current territorial status; statehood; and independence.

For Soto, free association is an alternative within independence.

Jeffrey Farrow, who is a lobbyist for the Puerto Rico Statehood Council and was co-chair of Democrat Bill Clinton’s White House task force on Puerto Rico, said he believes it is now official that there will not be a voting session this year in the Natural Resources Committee.

At the NAPREC panel - in which Representative Ritchie Torres (N.Y.) also participated - Farrow said Hoyer asked Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.) to postpone the voting session on the two status bills to try to reach a consensus.

“The idea is to bring it to a vote early next year, January or February,” said Farrow, who said Hoyer’s move “is an act of deference” to opponents of the pro-statehood bill, because it is Soto’s measure that has the votes in the Natural Resources Committee.

A pro-statehood bill, however, would be blocked in the Senate, where Democratic Majority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) has warned that the November 2020 referendum - in which statehood won 52.5 percent of the vote - reflected that there is no consensus, but division, on the island over status.

Rick Scott (Fla.), chairman of the Senate Republican caucus, has agreed with Schumer that the most recent plebiscite on the island showed that Puerto Rico’s voters are divided over the status and has recommended, like his colleague Marco Rubio, that the focus should be on improving the Puerto Rican economy.

Besides, before the election, the now Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) warned that he would never pass a pro-statehood bill for Puerto Rico or Washington D.C., which he believes is part of the Democrats’ “socialist agenda” to control the Senate.

In a 50-50 Senate split that needs 60 votes to bring a measure to a final vote, the pro-statehood bill by Senator Martin Heinrich (N.M.) has the support of five of his Democratic colleagues. No Republican supports the legislation.

Robert Menéndez’s (N.J.) bill, similar to that of Velázquez and Ocasio Cortez, has the support of seven other Democrats and two Republicans.