went on to publish an opinion piece where he called soberanistas, within and outside the PPD, "gullible" and "romantic", identifying his wing as "pragmatic". The cases "Calero Toledo v. Pearson Yacht" (1974) and "Examining Board v. Flores de Otero" (1976) were used by the conservatives to justify the argument that "Congress renounced its control on local affairs" and that "[it] granted [Puerto Rico a degree of] autonomy comparable to that of the [US] states". Collado Schwarz dismissed these cases on the basis that they were Cold War-era documents that contradicted the resolution approved by the US House Natural Resources Committee just months before and that neither of the cases directly attended Puerto Rico's status. He went on to quote "First National Bank vs. Yankton County, 101 U.S. 129" (1879), which states that "[any] territory within the jurisdiction of the United States not included in any State must necessarily be governed by or under the authority of Congress". On April 19, 2010, it was announced that a group linked to José Alfredo Hernández Mayoral and Roberto Pratts were pursuing a movement to reclaim the presidential vote under the territorial clause. Despite being a conservative, Ferrer joined Charlie Hernández in stating that such an initiative would "[only] be linked to statehood". During the public hearings for H.R. 2499, a group of lobbyists led by Ferrer managed to convince US Rep. Virginia Foxx to present an amendment that would include the territorial Commonwealth (described as "status quo") in the project, essentially neutralizing its intention to pursue "non territorial options". The subsequent approval of this amended proposal in the US House of Representatives was not supported by the soberanistas of the PPD. Luis Raúl Torres, Charlie Hernández and Carmen Yulín questioned why the conservatives were celebrating the inclusion of a territorial definition of the Commonwealth. ALAS also criticized it as an "attempt to prolong the anguish of the colony represented by the current Commonwealth", noting that just days after the hearings the Chairman of the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Jeff Bingaman, noted that free passage and double citizenship were viable under free association. A poll held by conservative radio station NotiUNO reflected that the 46% that once supported the Commonwealth was being splintered by the internal division, with free association representing a 17% of the total vote versus 29% for the status quo. This statistic included 23% of the participants