Luis Guillermo Fortuño Burset

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Luis Guillermo Fortuño Burset
Basic facts
Organization:	Republican Party of Puerto Rico
Role:	National Committeeman
Location:	Washington, D.C.
Affiliation:	Republican Party
Education:	•Colegio Marista •Georgetown University •University of Virginia School of Law

Luis Guillermo Fortuño Burset (born October 31, 1960) was first elected to serve as the national committeeman for the Republican Party of Puerto Rico in 2001. He serves on the Georgetown University’s Latin American Board and the Board of Directors of the Republican State Leadership Committee, American Action Network, Congressional Leadership Fund and The American Conservative Union, as well as the Advisory Board of the International Republican Institute.

Career

Education

Fortuño attended Colegio Marista (Marist College) in Guaynabo, graduating in 1978. He then earned a Bachelor of Science degree in diplomacy from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. In 1985, he received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. During this period, Fortuño was an intern at the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration in Washington, D.C.

While in college, Luis Fortuño co-founded the Puerto Rico Statehood Students Association (PRSSA) with Kenneth McClintock and presided over it from 1980 to 1981. During the 1980 gubernatorial election recount, the more than 1,500 absentee ballots generated by PRSSA and Fortuño for incumbent Governor Carlos Romero Barceló were an important factor in Romero Barceló's re-election, which was by approximately 3000 votes. Fortuño was also active in other pro-statehood youth organizations and in the Republican Party.

Current career

Fortuño is a partner at the law firm of Steptoe and Johnson LLC located in Washington, D.C. He was elected to serve as the national committeeman for the Republican Party of Puerto Rico in 2001 and was re-elected to a four-year term in 2016. He serves on the boards of several organizations.

Early career

In the 1990s, Fortuño served as the first secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Economic Development and Commerce, as the executive director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, and as the president of Puerto Rico's Hotel Development Corporation during the administration of Governor Pedro Rosselló.

Political activity

Governor of Puerto Rico

Fortuño was the governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States of America, from 2009 to 2013. Fortuño was first elected in 2004 and then won re-election by a wide margin during the 2008 elections, defeating incumbent Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá.

Elected to Council of State Governments

On May 22, 2010, while serving as governor, Fortuño was elected to be vice president of the Council of State Governments (CSG), making him the first Puerto Rican to hold a leadership position in that intergovernmental organization since Kenneth McClintock served as chairman in 1999. CSG is an organization designed to represent the three branches of government of the 55 states and territories of the United States. Several Canadian provinces are also international members of the organization.

Obama names Fortuño to Council of Governors

In 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Fortuño to the Council of Governors, a bipartisan commission aimed at improving coordination of efforts between state and federal agencies to address matters of defense and national security.

Resident Commissioner

In 2003, Fortuño won the 2004 NPP nomination for Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico in primaries against former Governor Carlos Romero Barceló, former Senate President Charlie Rodriguez and then Senator Miriam Ramírez. Fortuño represented Puerto Rico from 2005 to 2009 in the United States House of Representatives.

2004 campaign and election

Fortuño won the 2004 election, 48.5 percent to 48 percent, against his main rival Roberto Prats of the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) of Puerto Rico. Fortuño's running mate, Pedro Rosselló, lost his bid for the governor's seat to then Resident Commissioner Aníbal Acevedo Vilá by less than 4,000 votes. This meant that Fortuño would be the resident commissioner under Governor Acevedo Vilá of the PDP. This was the first time in Puerto Rican history that the governor of Puerto Rico and the resident commissioner were not from the same political party.

Committees and appointments

Upon the commencement of the 109th Congress, Fortuño was elected by his colleagues to serve as vice-president of the House Republican freshman class. He served as vice-chair of the Congressional Hispanic Conference during the 109th Congress and as chair during the 110th Congress. Fortuño was co-chair of the Congressional Friends of Spain, part of the Hispanic Conference Caucus. House Resources Committee Ranking Member Don Young appointed him in January 2007 as the Republican minority's Ranking Member in the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs for the 110th Congress.

Legislation

In October 2007, Fortuño filed legislation, along with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), to assure the continued operation of the Arecibo Radiotelescope.

In 2007, Fortuño joined Rep. José Serrano (D-NY) and 128 other co-sponsors in filing HR 900, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act, to establish a self-determination process leading to political status change for Puerto Rico. The bill was amended and approved in a voice vote by the House's Committee on Resources on October 23, a major victory for Fortuño. However, the measure never appeared before the president for his signature.

Noteworthy events

Workers' strikes (2009-2010)

In a televised speech on March 3, 2009, 60 days after having been sworn in, former Governor Fortuño announced his Fiscal and Economic Recovery Plan which included reducing the government's annual expenditures by more than $2 billion at the start of the next fiscal year in July 2009. Media speculation estimated that a reduction of such magnitude would require permanently laying off over 30,000 government workers. On May 1, 2009, a mass of workers marched through the streets of San Juan in response to the governor's plan, protesting the government's apparent preparation for impending layoffs.

On October 15, 2009, thousands of Puerto Rican workers and supporters gathered for what organizers tried to pass as a "general strike" over government budget cuts. As of June 2010, Puerto Rico's unemployment rate exceeded 16.7 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Fortuño administration expected the layoffs to propel that rate to 17.1 percent (the unemployment rate for April 2010 was 17.2).

On August 26, 2010, teachers unions staged a one-day walkout to protest the privatization of employee pensions, the shortage of teachers, and the deterioration of the school system. The walkout was the largest labor protest in public schools on the island since a 10-day strike in 2008 as teachers demanded improved wages and working conditions.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Luis Guillermo Fortuño Burset Puerto Rico. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Luis Guillermo Fortuño Burset - Google News

External links

• Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico
• Fortuño's official 2008 campaign site (Spanish)
• Fortuño's MySpace site
• Biography by CIDOB Foundation (Spanish)
• Caribbean Business article on Dec. 2006 Caribbean Business/Gaither/WOSO poll (dead link)
• General profile 2008

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