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On Wednesday in Washington, a Puerto Rican delegation made the case for statehood.

"Without the equal rights and responsibilities that are only available through statehood, Puerto Rico will never truly recover and prosper from the hurricane effects," Jennifer Gonzalez Colon, Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner to Congress, a nonvoting member, said on the House floor. "That's the reason we demand and deserve statehood for Puerto Rico now." 

Gonzalez Colon is making a call for statehood by the island territory that’s been made many times in the past. But this year, the demand for recognition is different.

That’s because Puerto Rico is still desperately struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria, which made landfall on the island 114 days ago. The federal response to the island’s crisis was deemed too slow from the start, and things are still inching along.

About 40 percent of residents are still without power. Hospitals are struggling with a shortage of supplies. And on Monday, the island’s police chief resigned amid a spike in violence, and as thousands of officers have called in sick to protest the lack of overtime pay.

Danica Coto is a reporter for the Associated Press on the island. She discusses the latest on the island, and how people are coping after three months without power. 

This segmemt is hosted by Todd Zwillich