House approves seven measures; proposed 30‑day digitization amendment to Senate Project 413 defeated

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The House of Representatives approved seven measures on final passage Thursday morning, April 10, 2025, voting to advance a mix of tax, public‑safety and administrative bills and a joint resolution after a roughly one‑hour session that recessed at 12:07 p.m.

Among the measures approved was Senate Project 413, a bill described in the chamber as intended to establish a unified digital file (expediente digital único) for people with functional diversity and to order Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Services to create, implement and maintain the centralized record containing information on services provided by the Department of Health, the Department of Education and the Administration of Vocational Rehabilitation. During debate, Representative Pérez Santiago proposed an amendment to add a requirement that agencies digitize every document and update the unified digital file “within a term not greater than 30 days” of creating the physical document. The amendment was defeated and the underlying bill was then approved on final vote.

Why it matters: senators’ and representatives’ passage of a centralized digital record could change how multiple agencies share and maintain service records for people with disabilities, a cross‑agency effort the bill assigns to Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Services. Lawmakers debated but rejected a proposal to impose a 30‑day mandatory timeline for agencies to digitize documents, leaving implementation timing and details to the enacted measure and implementing agency rules.

What the House approved

- Project of the House 95 — Amendments to Articles 2 and 3 and addition of a new Article 4 to a 2006 law that creates a workplace protocol to handle domestic violence situations. Final vote recorded as 48 in favor, 0 opposed.

- Project of the House 96 — Amendments related to earlier statutes (reading included textual edits to replace gendered wording). Final vote recorded in the session record as 48 in favor, 0 opposed.

- Project of the House 172 — An amendment package read and approved; final vote recorded as 45 in favor, 3 opposed.

- Project of the Senate 13 — Amendments to Article 7.137 of Law 107‑2020 (Municipal Code) to extend the deadline for municipalities to file audited financial statements and related documents; final vote recorded as 48 in favor, 0 opposed.

- Project of the Senate 85 — Amendments to Law 54 (Aug. 15, 1989) on domestic violence to include threats of animal abuse among covered conduct and to make technical changes; final vote recorded as 48 in favor, 0 opposed.

- Project of the Senate 413 — Establishes the unified digital record (expediente digital único) for persons with functional diversity and assigns duties to Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Services; an amendment to require agencies to digitize documents within 30 days was proposed by Representative Pérez Santiago and defeated during debate; the bill passed on final vote recorded as 48 in favor, 0 opposed.

- Joint Resolution of the House 25 — Ordered an investigation related to traffic safety education and compliance matters as described in the reading; final vote recorded as 48 in favor, 0 opposed.

How the amendment process played out on Senate Project 413

During the discussion on Senate Project 413, Representative Pérez Santiago asked that the bill’s operative text (page 4, line 15 in the draft) be amended to add a sentence requiring agencies covered by the law “to digitalize every document to store it in the unified digital file and update it within a term not greater than 30 days of the physical creation of said document.”(The wording is from the motion recorded in the chamber.) The motion to adopt that amendment was put to a vote and failed; the bill as presented without that 30‑day digitization clause was then approved on final passage.

Procedure and next steps

The House convened the final vote at 11:36 a.m. and closed voting at 12:02 p.m.; the clerk announced the tallies afterward. The speaker’s office and the House leadership will transmit approved measures to the other chamber or to the executive for follow‑up as required by law. Members recessed the chamber until Tuesday, April 22, 2025, at 1 p.m.

Votes at a glance (as recorded in the chamber)

- House Project 95: 48 yes, 0 no — approved. - House Project 96: 48 yes, 0 no — approved (reading included textual gender edits). - House Project 172: 45 yes, 3 no — approved. - Senate Project 13: 48 yes, 0 no — approved (municipal filing deadline extension). - Senate Project 85: 48 yes, 0 no — approved (domestic violence law amendments). - Senate Project 413: 48 yes, 0 no — approved (unified digital file for persons with functional diversity); amendment to require 30‑day digitization was defeated in separate vote. - Joint Resolution of the House 25: 48 yes, 0 no — approved.

Speaker and procedural notes

Portavoz Torres Zamora presided over much of the floor activity in coordination with the presiding officer identified in the transcript as “Señora presidenta.” Votes were taken by the chamber as recorded by the clerk; individual roll‑call vote names were not read aloud in the portions of the transcript that record final tallies. Where recorded tallies differ or are unclear in the transcript, the article notes the votes “as recorded in the chamber.”

The House also considered other measures and left several bills for a later turn; routine committee reports, ceremonial motions and recognition items were taken in block and approved by unanimous or no‑objection consent during the session.