Joseph B. Foraker in the context of Union Army

The Foraker Act (Pub. L. 56–191, 31 Stat. 77, enacted April 12, 1900), officially called the Organic Act of 1900 and most commonly known by the name of its sponsor, Senator Joseph B. Foraker, (R-Ohio), is an organic act of the 56th United States Congress that was signed into law by President William McKinley on April 12, 1900. The Act replaced the military government of Puerto Rico, which was established by the United States after the annexation of the archipelago and island during the Spanish–American War in 1898, with a civil insular government under the continued federal jurisdiction of the United States as the local administration of an unincorporated territory. It served as the primary organic law for the government of Puerto Rico and its relation with the United States until it was superseded by the Jones–Shafroth Act of 1917.

The Foraker Act established a civil government in Puerto Rico modeled after the federal government of the United States. It divided the local government of the unincorporated territory into three branches: an executive, consisting of a Governor and an 11-member Executive Council appointed by the President of the United States, a legislative, composed of bicameral Legislative Assembly, with the Executive Council as its upper chamber and a 35-member House of Delegates elected by the residents of Puerto Rico as its lower chamber, and a judicial, headed by a chief justice and a district judge appointed by the President. The Act created the office of Resident Commissioner, a non-voting member to the United States House of Representatives elected by the residents of Puerto Rico. It also established Puerto Rican citizenship and extended American nationality to Puerto Ricans.