The U.S. House has passed a bill that would allow Puerto Rico to hold the first-ever binding referendum on whether to become a state or gain some sort of independence.

By Farnoush Amiri, Dánica Coto, Associated Press

On the ballot is also a referendum on whether to change Puerto Rico's political status from territory to state. That vote is advisory as Congress would have to approve any change.

By Dánica Coto, Associated Press

In the last four years, Puerto Rico’s billion dollar debt crisis, devastation caused by hurricanes, earthquakes, and the mass exodus of half a million to the mainland, have all thrown the territory’s relationship to the U.S. in the national spotlight.

By Ivette Feliciano