Eduardo Bhatia

Eduardo Bhatia Gautier (born May 16, 1964) is a Puerto Rican attorney and politician. Bhatia is a former 15th President of the Senate of Puerto Rico and executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration.

Early life and education

Eduardo Bhatia was born in San Salvador, El Salvador on May 16, 1964. Bhatia's father, the economist and retired professor Mohinder Bhatia, came to Puerto Rico in 1957 as an assistant to a Syracuse University professor who had been in India on a one-year sabbatical. He remained in Puerto Rico and married Carmen Gautier Mayoral in 1961, a political science professor at the University of Puerto Rico and niece-in-law of Felisa Rincón de Gautier. Eduardo Bhatia is one of three siblings. His brother, Andrés Bhatia, is a practicing oncologist in Gainesville, Florida, and his sister, Lisa Bhatia, is an assistant U.S. attorney at the San Juan District office of the U.S. Attorney.

Bhatia Toledo did his secondary studies at Colegio San José. Graduated with an A.B. from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs in 1986 after completing a 132-page-long senior thesis titled "New Roads for Old Objectives: The Compact of Free Association with the Micronesian Islands and its Applicability to the Future of the Puerto Rico - United States Relationship."

During Bhatia's university years, he was a member of the Princeton Democratic Students Association and the Student Council, actively participating in the student movement against Apartheid in South Africa. In May 1986, Bhatia was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study law, economics and politics in Santiago, Chile, for one year. Around this time he became a member of Phi Sigma Alpha fraternity.

Bhatia graduated from Stanford Law School in June 1990, where he founded and edited the Stanford Journal of Law and Policy, an academic publication with an emphasis on the development of new laws and public policy. As part of his community work as a law student in Stanford, Bhatia also directed a campaign to prevent the approval of a rent increase in the low-income East Palo Alto community. He is admitted to practice law in Florida, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Political career

First term as Senator: 1996–2000 In 1996, at the age of 32, Bhatia was elected Senator at Large by the Popular Democratic Party, becoming the youngest Puerto Rican senator in that four-year term and one of the youngest in the history of the Senate of Puerto Rico. As member of numerous Senatorial committees and spokesperson for his party, his efforts were focused toward increasing employment and educational opportunities for Puerto Rico's youth. He also sought consensus, joining PNP senators in co-sponsoring legislation. An example was the introduction of a bill with Sen. Kenneth McClintock to improve financial education in public schools, which was vetoed by Gov. Pedro Rosselló. A political analyst acknowledged his hard work by calling Mr. Bhatia "Puerto Rico's top senator." After that, Bhatia worked as a lawyer in private practice and as a professor at the University of Puerto Rico, School of Law in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. During this time Bhatia was also involved in community work. At the 2008 general elections, Bhatia won one of only five Senate seats obtained by his party. After the elections, the PPD Senate caucus reelected Senator José Luis Dalmau for a third term as PPD Senate Leader and elected Bhatia as Minority Whip.

Bhatia presented his candidacy for reelection in 2012. At the primaries that year, he was the candidate with most votes, securing his spot for the general elections. During the elections, Bhatia was the PPD candidate to the Senate with most votes, and the second overall. After the win, Senator Eduardo Bhatia was elected among his peers as the 15th President of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Bhatia was reelected once more in the 2016 General Election. However, his party lost the majority in the Senate and he was succeeded by Thomas Rivera Schatz as the President of the Senate of Puerto Rico.

Tenure as Senate President During his tenure as Senate President, Bhatia was selected as Chair of the Council of State Governments of the Eastern Regional Conference (CSG-ERC) and later elected as President of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators, by 72% of the vote, becoming the first Senate President and the first Puerto Rican, resident of the island to preside over the organization. He also seats in the board of the Council of State Government (CSG), National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) and the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA). During his tenure, he has authored Puerto Rico's Energy Reform law and has tackled education reform legislation.

Personal life Bhatia is married to Panamanian attorney Isabel Cristina Fernández. His mother, Carmen, was a Puerto Rican while his father, Mohinder, was of Punjabi Sikh heritage hailing from Mirpur (in today's Pakistan) who migrated to India in 1947.