The House on Monday appointed Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to serve as chairman of a bicameral task force charged with investigating the causes and possible solutions to Puerto Rico’s debt crisis, the Morning Consult reported yesterday. The House also formalized the appointments of Reps. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) and Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) as the House Republican appointees to the task force. Rep. Nydia Velázquez of New York and Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico’s nonvoting representative in Congress, are the two House Democratic appointees. In addition to Hatch, who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) are members of the task force. The Puerto Rico bill that Congress passed in June lets Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) decide who gets appointed as the task force’s chairman.
