I would give you all slices, resurrect, resolve Puerto Ricoâs debt crisis
-Lin-Manuel Miranda (x)
Find your rep here
you actually can tweet that at them
Whatâs going on? Puerto Rico desperately needs federal legislation allowing it to restructure its debt. Watch this for background on the what, how and why (spoiler: plenty of colonialism and predatory capitalism). Right now, the House needs to pass a bipartisan bill to send to the Senate. They are already about to sail past their May 1st deadline, the due date of a substantial debt payment.
The next big deadline is a huge payment due July 1. If Congress doesnât take meaningful action before then, PR will likely be forced to default on some general-obligation bonds, which is extra bad, and have to ask for an actual bailout (the very thing creditorsâ scare ads are claiming lying that a bill allowing debt restructuring is).
Thing is, no one is counting on Congress to get it together and act in a timely manner. And even thenâespecially thenâthere is no guarantee theyâll resolve the situation justly. Which is why we need to tell them we care a shit ton about them getting this done and done rightâand will remember at the ballot box. The Republican-introduced bill, H.R. 4900, is now (4/25) in committee. You can track it here.
Tell your rep you support broad debt restructuring authority and bankruptcy protections for Puerto Rico ASAPâlike the rest of the United States hasâand that you vote and youâll be following this with interest. Then follow up. The Democrats are generally on the right side here, but a lot of reps are kicking up a fuss because of the bailout scare ads (and *cough*racism) and Dems need to know that their constituents care about this.
Representative Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, which is drafting the measure, said, âWe get past May and toward July when another big shoe dropsâthey continue to default and not be able to payâthen youâre starting to take it to what the Republicans want to call a fiscal crisis of their own making, to a humanitarian crisis of pretty huge proportion,â said Grijalva.
âI hope we maintain some urgency,â he added. (x)
sources/more information
John Oliverâs substantial segment 4/24/16 (rebloggable)
Summary of the legislative situation 4/18/16
Supreme Court hearing that illuminates contrasts between Republican and Democratic approaches 3/22/16
More on the current congressional politics 4/25/16
LMMâs speech about relief for Puerto Rico at Capitol Hill (where he also went behind the scenes) 3/15/16 (rebloggable)
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