resident commissioner

noun

Updated on: 20 Mar 2018

Definition of resident commissioner

1 : a nonvoting representative of a dependency in the U.S. House of Representatives

2 : a resident administrator in a British colony or possession

Recent Examples of resident commissioner from the Web

The most important proponent of rebuilding Puerto Rico in addition to Luis Gutiérrez and Nydia Velázquez and the resident commissioner from the island is Senator Bernie Sanders [who has endorsed Garcia].

— maya dukmasova, Chicago Reader, "‘Chuy’ García vows to keep fighting Chicago machine from Congress," 13 Mar. 2018
There is no chance that Congress will accept the credentials of the shadow delegation and seat them as representatives of Puerto Rico, which currently has a nonvoting resident commissioner who can participate in congressional debates.

— carl hulse, New York Times, "Advocates of Puerto Rico Statehood Plan to Demand Representation," 9 Jan. 2018
What Puerto Rico, like Washington, DC, does have is a resident commissioner -- a non-voting liaison to Congress who has some of the benefits of being a member but who cannot vote.

— z. byron wolf, CNN, "Puerto Ricans are Americans, too! But they live in a 'zombie state'," 3 Oct. 2017
Puerto Ricans in the island do vote for a resident commissioner who represents the island's interests in Washington, D.C., but is not a voting member of Congress.

— sandra lilley, NBC News, "Puerto Rico Is Part Of the U.S.: Here’s A Few Things to Know," 3 Oct. 2017
Pence was joined by his wife, Karen; Florida’s two U.S. senators, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Marco Rubio, and Puerto Rican resident commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón.

— anita kumar, miamiherald, "A day before Caribbean trip, Pence meets newly arrived Puerto Ricans in Orlando," 5 Oct. 2017
Still, the Puerto Rican resident commissioner, the territory's non-voting member of the House, caucuses with Republicans.

— ryan struyk, CNN, "Here's what would happen to US politics if Puerto Rico became a state," 14 Oct. 2017
The federal effort has come in for praise from some, including Jenniffer González-Colón, Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner and the island’s representative in Congress.

— richard fausset, michael d. shear, ron nixon and frances robles, New York Times, "San Juan Mayor Rebukes Trump Administration for Rosy Comments on Relief Effort," 29 Sep. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'resident commissioner.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.