House Republicans have introduced a bill to deal with the Puerto Rico debt crisis. The bill was introduced a little before midnight Thursday and Puerto Rico's representative in Congress, who has been pushing U.S. lawmakers to take action to help its island territory, soon after issued a statement saying the bill was much improved from an earlier version.
The bill was introduced by Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, who is the chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources and Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.
"Years of disastrous policies have completely wrecked Puerto Rico's economy. As a result, the island and its millions of American citizens face a humanitarian crisis," Duffy said in a statement.
Bishop, whose committee will hold a hearing on the bill and vote on whether to advance it to the full House, said the bill makes technical refinements and incorporates negotiated changes that were made to an earlier version of the bill that drew heavy criticism and was quickly taken back to negotiations.
"Any future changes will be done in public meetings," Bishop said.
Puerto Rico has been suffering a severe fiscal crisis that has forced hundreds of thousand of its residents, who are American citizens, to move to the U.S. mainland to seek work. The island has a $72 billion debt and has defaulted on bond payments. It faces another multimillion payment in July.
Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico's resident commissioner in Congress, said although the bill is not perfect and does not meet all of his criteria for his support, he may be able to support it.
"Like any product of bipartisan compromise, it contains provisions I oppose or view as unnecessary and it is my hope these provisions can be modified or removed as the legislative process moves forward," he said in a statement.
"However the heart of the bill - the debt restructuring section and the oversight board section - comes far closer to meeting the stringent criteria I established in order for the legislation to earn my support," he said.
He warned that the collapse of the bill could mean the collapse of Puerto Rico's government and said: "History will judge us harshly if we do not act swiftly and wisely."