A top U.S. Senate Republican said that he will push for including aid to Puerto Rico in the $1.1 trillion spending bill that lawmakers are racing to approve this week, which would mark the first step by Congress to help the Caribbean island deal with an escalating debt crisis, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who chairs the finance committee, said that he plans to get a measure in the legislation that would help Puerto Rico meet its financial obligations until February at least. That would give Congress time to reach agreement on a broader response to the territory’s fiscal strains. Puerto Rico has been pleading with lawmakers in Washington for assistance as it runs out of cash and struggles to pay its $70 billion of debt. Hatch and two other Senate committee heads last week introduced legislation to direct as much as $3 billion to Puerto Rico through a newly-created authority that would help oversee the island’s budget. Read more.
Tomorrow’s free BloombergLaw "Eye on Bankruptcy" webinar features Rep. Pedro Pierluisi and Judge Steven Rhodes discussing the Puerto Rico debt crisis from ABI’s Winter Leadership Conference! To register, please click here.
Join experts in San Juan to discuss Puerto Rico's economic distress and other important cross-border insolvency topics at ABI's Caribbean Insolvency Symposium Feb. 4-6, 2016. Click here to register!
For more news and analysis of Puerto Rico's debt crisis, be sure to visit ABI's "Puerto Rico in Distress" webpage.
