The top Democrat on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee is pushing for a congressional hearing into the role of hedge funds in Puerto Rico’s debt crisis, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Making the request yesterday, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) pointed to a Sept. 4 report by his staff asserting that some hedge fund managers are trying to affect the outcome of the crisis to pad profits rather than accept losses from investment miscalculations. “This behavior, while profitable, is reprehensible,” Grijalva wrote in a letter to committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah). Republicans who lead both chambers of Congress have signaled little urgency in extending aid to Puerto Rico, while President Barack Obama’s administration has made clear it won’t bail out the commonwealth.
