Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said yesterday that the Federal Reserve should use its authority to extend aid to Puerto Rico to help the island with its $70 billion debt crisis, MorningConsult.com reported. Sanders called for the Fed to use authority it has under Section 13.3 of the Federal Reserve Act to give aid to entities outside the banking system in “unusual and exigent circumstances.” He compared possible Fed assistance to the central bank’s role in extending aid to large banks during the 2008 financial crisis. “If the Fed could bail out Wall Street, it can help the three-and-a-half million American citizens of Puerto Rico,” he said. He also criticized the emerging plan in Congress to give Puerto Rico debt restructuring authority by establishing a fiscal oversight board. “The Republican plan in Congress to establish an unelected oversight board that would be given the power to slash pensions, cut education and healthcare and increase taxes on working families is not the answer,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said. Read more.
For more news and analysis of Puerto Rico's debt crisis, be sure to visit ABI's "Puerto Rico in Distress" webpage.
