On April 29, 2009, the House of Representatives passed HR 2499, "The Puerto Rico Democracy Act," 223-169.  A Republican amendment to make English the sole official language (now both Spanish and English are official languages of Puerto Rico) was defeated.  By a vote 198-194, Democrats defeated another Republican amendment to add the gun rights amendments which they tried to put on the D.C. Voting Rights Act.

The bill was sent to the Senate on April 30, 2010 and referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources which held a hearing on the bill on May 19, 2010.

If enacted, HR 2499 would ostensibly just set in motion a Congressionally authorized plebiscite on Puerto Rico's future status, but the Washington Times editorial board in its April 28, 2010 editorial, "Puerto Rico deserves better," thought the Democratic House leadership planned to "ram through a bill to stack the deck in favor of statehood for Puerto Rico." In the April 27, 2010 edition of the Washington Times, Rep. Doc Hastings, ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, commented on what he called a "Backdoor approach to statehood." For those articles and Fox News' coverage of the House's passage of the bill and the National Journal's BIlly House on the debate on the gun amendments, read more.