It also created the Senate of Puerto Rico, established a bill of rights, and authorized the election of a Resident Commissioner (previously appointed by the President) to a four-year term.

The act also exempted Puerto Rican bonds from federal, state, and local taxes regardless of where the bondholder resides.

Luis Muñoz Rivera, the Resident Commissioner in Washington, argued against US citizenship, giving several speeches in the House of Representatives.

Eventually, the Act established a preference system that determined which ethnic groups were desirable immigrants and placed great importance on labor qualifications.

It expanded the definition of the "United States" for nationality purposes, which already included Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, to add Guam.

[7] Residents of the island were granted United States citizenship and allowed to reject it voluntarily within six months of the act being established.

Matters relating to franchises and concessions were vested in a Public Service Commission, consisting of the heads of the executive departments, the auditor, and two elected commissioners.

Under the Act, six executive departments were constituted: Justice, Finance, Interior, Education, Agriculture, Labor, and Health.

Section 3 of the act also exempted Puerto Rican bonds from federal, state, and local taxes regardless of where the bondholder resides.

Through its passage, the Jones–Shafroth Act – via a combination of citizenship and the expansion of U.S. laws to Puerto Rico, including the aforementioned National Defense Act – imposed mandatory conscription into the U.S. military on Puerto Ricans, precisely at the moment that the United States entered World War I.

In 1948, U.S. Congress mandated Puerto Rico to draft its own Constitution which, when ratified by the electorate and implemented in 1952, provided greater autonomy as a territorial Commonwealth.