I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2590 
To provide for an additional requirements payment under the Help America 
Vote Act of 2002 to ensure that Puerto Rico is treated in the same 
manner as other States for purposes of determining the amount of 
the requirements payment made under such Act, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 6, 2007 
Mr. FORTUN˜O introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on House Administration 
A BILL 
To provide for an additional requirements payment under 
the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to ensure that Puer-
to Rico is treated in the same manner as other States 
for purposes of determining the amount of the require-
ments payment made under such Act, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds as follows: 
(1) The Help America Vote Act of 2002 
(HAVA) established a series of Federal requirements 
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for election administration and provided funding for 
States and territories to meet those requirements. 
(2) The amount of funds provided to a State 
was determined under a formula which is based 
largely on the State’s voting age population, with a 
base minimum amount. However, the base minimum 
amount for a State for a fiscal year was one-half of 
one percent of the total amount appropriated for the 
year, while the base minimum for amount for Puerto 
Rico and the other territories was one-tenth of one 
percent of the total amount appropriated for the 
year. 
(3) Of all the States and territories whose pay-
ment under HAVA was the base minimum amount, 
only Puerto Rico received less than it would have re-
ceived if the payment had been based on voting age 
population. Puerto Rico ranked 27th in voting age 
population in 2000 (2,716,509), but received less 
than any State and received the same amount as 
American Samoa (whose voting age population was 
31,753), Guam (99,951), and the United States Vir-
gin Islands (74,323). 
(4) 24 states and the District of Columbia had 
smaller voting age populations than Puerto Rico but 
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received more HAVA funding to meet the new Fed-
eral requirements. 
(5) The costs which a State incurs in meeting 
HAVA’s requirements are driven largely by the size 
of its electorate. 
(6) Because the amount provided to Puerto 
Rico under HAVA was not based upon the size of 
its electorate, HAVA failed to provide Puerto Rico 
with an amount which reflected the costs of com-
plying with the Act’s requirements. 
SEC. 2. REQUIREMENTS PAYMENT FOR PUERTO RICO FOR 
ELECTION ASSISTANCE. 
(a) PAYMENT.—Not later than December 31, 2007, 
the Election Assistance Commission shall make a require-
ments payment under subtitle D of title II of the Help 
America Vote Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 15401 et seq.) to 
the State Election Commission of Puerto Rico. 
(b) USE OF PAYMENT.—The use of the payment 
made under subsection (a) shall be subject to the same 
terms and conditions as the use of a payment made under 
section 251 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002. 
(c) AMOUNT OF PAYMENT.—The amount of the pay-
ment made under subsection (a) shall be equal to the dif-
ference between— 
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(1) the aggregate amount of requirements pay-
ments made to Puerto Rico under subtitle D of title 
II of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 prior to 
the enactment of this Act; and 
(2) the aggregate amount of requirements pay-
ments which would have been made to Puerto Rico 
under such subtitle prior to the enactment of this 
Act if Puerto Rico had been treated in the same 
manner as each of the several States and the Dis-
trict of Columbia. 
SEC. 3. REVISION OF FORMULA FOR DETERMINING MIN-
IMUM 
AMOUNT 
OF 
REQUIREMENTS 
PAY-
MENTS TO PUERTO RICO. 
Section 252(c) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 
(42 U.S.C. 15402(c)) is amended— 
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘several 
States or the District of Columbia,’’ and inserting 
‘‘several States, the District of Columbia, or the 
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,’’; and 
(2) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘the Common-
wealth of Puerto Rico,’’. 
Æ 
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