The government of Puerto Rico is a three-branch system created by the island’s own 1952 constitution, with an elected governor, a two-chamber Legislative Assembly, and an independent judiciary. Because Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory rather than a state, that local government operates under the ultimate authority of the U.S. Congress through the Territorial Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The result is a layered arrangement: Puerto Ricans elect their own leaders and write their own civil and criminal laws, but federal law sits above them, and residents have no vote for president and no voting member in Congress.
The Three Branches on the Island
Executive power belongs to the Governor, who is elected by popular vote to a four-year term and leads the enforcement of local law, government operations, and the annual budget sent to the legislature.1Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Jenniffer González-Colón took office as governor in January 2025. The Governor appoints the heads of executive departments covering treasury, justice, education, public safety, and the rest of the cabinet, and serves as commander-in-chief of the Puerto Rico National Guard. If the Governor dies, resigns, or becomes permanently unable to serve, the Secretary of State fills the office for the rest of the term.
Lawmaking belongs to the Legislative Assembly, a bicameral body with a 28-member Senate and a 51-member House of Representatives. Both chambers mix district seats with at-large seats elected by the whole voting population, and all members serve four-year terms running on the same cycle as the Governor.2Ballotpedia. Article III, Puerto Rico Constitution The Assembly writes the statutes that govern civil and criminal matters, sets local taxes, controls public spending, and can investigate executive agencies.
Island politics do not sort along mainland Democratic and Republican lines. The main parties organize around Puerto Rico’s political status: the New Progressive Party (PNP) favors statehood, the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) generally supports the current commonwealth arrangement, and the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) favors sovereignty.
Judicial power sits with a unified court system under Article V of the constitution.3Office of Management and Budget of Puerto Rico. Act No. 18-2013 Cases start in the Court of First Instance, move on appeal to the Court of Appeals, and can reach the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico as the court of last resort for island law. The Supreme Court has a Chief Justice and four Associate Justices, though the legislature can change that number at the court’s request. All judges are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate rather than elected. Supreme Court justices serve during good behavior with compulsory retirement at age 70, while lower-court judges serve fixed terms set by law.1Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
The 78 Municipalities
Puerto Rico is divided into 78 municipalities, each with an elected Mayor as chief executive and a Municipal Legislature that passes local ordinances and approves the municipal budget. Municipal governments handle services like waste collection, road maintenance, and community health programs, and they fund their work through property taxes, municipal fees, and a volume-of-business tax.4Justia. Puerto Rico Code 21 – 4054 – Municipal Powers in General Their size varies enormously, from San Juan’s dense urban apparatus to small rural operations in the mountains. The central government in San Juan keeps authority over areas like education and policing that municipalities in the 50 states often control themselves, which limits how much independent power any one municipality really has.
What Puerto Ricans Can and Can’t Do in Federal Elections
Residents of Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens, but they cannot vote for president in the general election. The Constitution assigns presidential electors to states, and the 23rd Amendment added the District of Columbia but no territory. Puerto Ricans do take part in presidential primaries and send delegates to both major national party conventions, but that participation stops at the general election.
In Congress, the island is represented by a single Resident Commissioner in the U.S. House of Representatives, elected to a four-year term.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 48 USC 891 – Resident Commissioner to United States The Resident Commissioner can introduce legislation, speak and debate on the floor, serve on committees, and vote inside those committees. The office cannot vote on final passage of a bill or amendment on the House floor, cannot vote for Speaker, and cannot preside over the chamber.6Representative Pablo Hernandez. What Is a Resident Commissioner? Puerto Rico has no representation at all in the U.S. Senate. Roughly 3.2 million American citizens therefore have no voting voice in the body that writes the federal laws that apply to them.
Taxes and Federal Benefits
Taxation on the island works differently from the 50 states. Bona fide residents who earn income from Puerto Rico sources generally do not pay federal income tax on that income, under Section 933 of the Internal Revenue Code, which exempts Puerto Rico-source income for anyone who lives on the island for the entire tax year.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 933 – Income From Sources Within Puerto Rico Income from U.S. mainland sources or from federal employment is still federally taxable. Residents pay Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes at the same rates as workers in the states, and they pay local income taxes to Puerto Rico’s own treasury.
That tax structure shapes federal benefits. Puerto Rico residents are completely ineligible for Supplemental Security Income, the federal cash assistance program for elderly, blind, and disabled people with limited resources, because federal law defines the “United States” for SSI purposes as only the 50 states and the District of Columbia.8Social Security Administration. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that exclusion, ruling that Congress had a rational basis for treating Puerto Rico differently because residents are exempt from most federal income taxes.9Supreme Court of the United States. United States v. Vaello Madero Food assistance works through a different mechanism as well: in 1981, Congress replaced the island’s participation in the federal food stamp program with a capped block grant called the Nutrition Assistance Program. Unlike SNAP, NAP does not automatically expand when more people qualify, average benefits run significantly lower than mainland SNAP benefits, and the program has no automatic mechanism for emergency food aid after natural disasters.
The PROMESA Oversight Board
Federal authority over Puerto Rico flows from the Territorial Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress the power to make rules and regulations for all U.S. territories. Courts have read that clause to mean Congress holds broad sovereignty over Puerto Rico and can legislate on any subject a state legislature could address within its own borders.10Constitution Annotated. ArtIV.S3.C2.3 Power of Congress Over Territories The 1952 constitution gave the island local self-governance but did not change that underlying relationship.11U.S. Government Publishing Office. House Report 104-713 – United States-Puerto Rico Political Status Act
In 2016, Congress used that authority to pass the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, known as PROMESA, in response to the island’s debt crisis.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 48 USC Ch. 20 – Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability The law created a seven-member Financial Oversight and Management Board with sweeping power over island finances. The Board can approve or reject local budgets, oversee fiscal plans, and negotiate debt restructuring agreements that become binding on all creditors once confirmed by the federal court.13Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico. Frequently Asked Questions
Puerto Rico completed its largest debt restructuring in 2022, reducing roughly $70 billion in debt and pension obligations, but the Board remains in place. Under federal law, it can only dissolve once it certifies that Puerto Rico has adequate access to credit markets at reasonable rates and has maintained balanced budgets under accrual accounting standards for at least four consecutive fiscal years.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 48 USC 2149 – Termination of Oversight Board Until those conditions are met, an unelected federal body sits alongside the Governor and the Legislative Assembly as one of the most powerful actors in how Puerto Rico is actually governed.