Ángel Viera Martínez, a former prosecutor and freshman representative from San Juan, was elected to the first of three stints as Speaker.

Even though the Popular Democratic Party retained the House in the 1984 general elections, Colberg decided to comply with a party commitment and endorse a new Speaker, José Ronaldo "Rony" Jarabo who served as Speaker from 1985 to 1992.

Jarabo was defeated in a primary in 1992, and as the New Progressive Party won the 1992 general elections, he was succeeded by the first woman Speaker, Zaida Hernandez Torres, who served until 1996, when she left the House to run for Mayor of San Juan.

[11] The House has exclusive power to initiate impeachment proceedings and, with the concurrence of two-thirds of the total number of members of which it is composed, to bring an indictment.

Article III of the Constitution of Puerto Rico states that no person can be a member of the House of Representatives unless the candidate:[12] Elections to the House are held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, along with the elections for governor, resident commissioner, the Senate, the mayors, and the municipal assemblies.

Only American citizens (including Puerto Ricans) that meet all the following requirements may vote for representatives: Citizens cast their votes in colleges (Spanish: colegios) which are simply usually the nearest public school to where the voter declared as residence.

Votes are required by law to be cast in secret, unless the citizen has a physical impairment that does not allow him to.

In both of these extraordinary cases, officials from the Puerto Rico State Commission on Elections will provide aid so that the citizens can cast their vote—either by using verbal or non-verbal communication—with members from the different political parties required to observe the process in order to ensure accuracy, fairness, transparency, order, and legitimacy.

[b] To elect the members of the House, Puerto Rico is divided into forty (40) representative districts that do not follow a particular pattern; they are strictly based on a similar number of inhabitants.

The annual salary for full-time work of each representative is $73,775 USD annually, except for the Speaker which receives $110,663, and the Speaker pro tempore, the Majority and Minority Leaders, the Majority and Minority Whips, and the presidents of the Commission on Government and the Commission on Treasury which receive $84,841 each.

[14] Representatives are allowed to generate additional income from outside their legislative employment subject to restrictions, and only the representatives which do not receive an annual salary are entitled to additional benefits such as per diem or car allowance.

[citation needed] All representatives qualify for the same retirement and health benefits as of all other employees of the government of Puerto Rico.

[14] Rather than providing these resources and services directly, representatives are instead assigned a budget from which they retrieve funds to cover such costs.

The president pro tempore, committee chairs, and some other officials are generally from the majority party.

Section 9 of Article III of the Constitution of Puerto Rico states that should a Party control more than two-thirds of the seats in the House of Representatives, the losing candidates with the most percentage of votes will be given seats in the Legislature until the total of minority members reaches seventeen (17).

In order to qualify to a Section 9 seat, the candidates must belong to a party that received a minimum number of votes in the General Elections of that year.

The post was created by Article III of the Constitution of Puerto Rico which establishes that, "[...]the House of Representatives [shall elect] a Speaker from among [its] members."

The current Speaker is Carlos Johnny Méndez, representative District 36 from the New Progressive Party.

The current Speaker pro tempore is José "Conny" Varela, representative at-large from the PDP.

The Senate's chief administrative officer is the Secretary of the House, who maintains public records, disburses salaries, monitors the acquisition of stationery and supplies, and oversees clerks.