Top Treasury Department and Puerto Rican officials are begging the Senate to move quickly on a bill to help the commonwealth handle more than $70 billion in unpayable debt, The Hill reported today. Funding for public services in Puerto Rico is drying up under the commonwealth’s shrinking economy and lack of access to credit markets, so leaders are pushing the Senate to clear a House-passed bill before a crucial debt payment that is due July 1. “We need the bill by July 1,” Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla (D) said during a Thursday panel hosted by the progressive Center for American Progress Action Fund. “We need the bill yesterday.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is expected to hold a vote on the debt measure next week before the chamber leaves town for its July 4 recess. The bill passed the House this month with wide bipartisan support and is expected to clear the Senate, though Democrats have refused to publicly support the legislation. Read more.
For a summary of H.R. 5278 from the forthcoming July edition of the ABI Journal, please click here.
For more news and analysis of Puerto Rico's debt crisis, be sure to visit ABI's "Puerto Rico in Distress" webpage.
