Luis Fortuno



Luis G. Fortuño is the Governor of Puerto Rico since 2009. He is a corporate lawyer and politician affiliated with the New Progressive Party and the Republican Party U.S.A. He previously was the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico to the United States Congress, having served January 3, 2005 to 2009.

Reparations for Japanese Latin Americans
Fortuno cosponsored The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Latin Americans of Japanese Descent Act in the 110th Congress which would establish a commission that would determine the facts and circumstances involving the relocation, internment and deportation of Japanese Latin Americans.

Bio
Fortuño was born October 31, 1960. He graduated from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and later received a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1985. During this period, Fortuño was a volunteer intern at the Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in Washington, D.C.

During Pedro Rosselló's tenure as governor of Puerto Rico, Fortuño served as Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company and as the first Secretary of Economic Development.

In his bid for resident commissioner, Fortuño actively campaigned alongside Pedro Rosselló, who was also seeking re-election. In the 2004 election, Fortuño was victorious. However, his running-mate Rosselló lost his bid for the governor's seat by 4,000 votes. This meant that Fortuño would be the Resident Commissioner under Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá of the Popular Democratic Party. This was the first time in Puerto Rican history that the governor of Puerto Rico and the resident commissioner are not from the same political party.

2006 elections
Unlike all other representatives to the U.S. House of Representatives, Puerto Rico's resident commissioner is elected every four years, not two. When in Congress Fortuño received a large bloc of donations from the tourism industry. Instead of running for reelection to Congress in 2008, Fortuño ran for governor of Puerto Rico and won in November 2008. 

2008 elections
In early 2008, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, then governor of Puerto Rico, had a progressive approach to the environment and the protection 3,000 acres of coastline known as the Northeast Ecological Corridor, nesting ground for the critically endangered leatherback sea turtle and 50 other threatened native species, like the brown pelican, Puerto Rican boa, and West Indian manatee. But in November 2008 when Luis Fortuño was elected governor of Puerto Rico he made a major policy change and decided to cancael the Corridor’s nature-reserve designation to pave the way for large-scale, unsustainable development in the area. It would appear that Fortuño may have placed the short-term interests of the tourism industry above the long-term interests of the environment and some of Puerto Rico's endangered species.

Money in politics
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Committees

 * House Committee on Education and Labor
 * Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education
 * Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities
 * House Committee on Foreign Affairs
 * Subcommitee on Europe and Emerging Threats
 * Subcommitee on Western Hemisphere
 * House Committee on Natural Resources
 * Subcommitee on Insular Affairs, Ranking Member

Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)

 * House Committee on Education and the Workforce
 * Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness
 * Subcommittee on Select Education
 * House Committee on Resources
 * Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation Wildlife and Oceans
 * Subcommittee on National Parks Recreation and Public Lands
 * House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
 * Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
 * Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment

Articles and Resources

 * Official website
 * Campaign website, in Espanol