The president of Puerto Rico's majority party, David Bernier, said he would sue to stop the proposed federal bill to impose a fiscal control board.
Bernier, who is running for governor, slammed H.R. 5278, known as PROMESA, on Wednesday, after the House Natural Resources Committee voted 29-to-10 to approve it, and sent the measure to the full House. Other Puerto Rico leaders expressed sentiments ranging from opposition to hedged support.
The bill's control board would have the power to require Puerto Rico's government to pass balanced budgets and budget plans. It would allow the board to override decisions by Puerto Rico's elected government.
If passed, the bill would also allow the board to file debt restructuring petitions on behalf of the commonwealth in a federal district court.
When asked about PROMESA on Wednesday, Bernier said he would go to all necessary channels to defend Puerto Rico's constitution, according to his spokeswoman. Bernier is concerned that the board would override Puerto Rico's democracy. It puts unelected people in charge of Puerto Rico's finances, he said.
Bernier is the candidate of the Popular Democratic Party for governor and president of the party. Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla and the majority of the members of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives and Senate are PDP members.
Bernier said U.S. Senators Bob Menendez, D-N.J.; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. have all proposed bills that would address Puerto Rico's debt problem without depriving it of its democracy. In a press statement he also said the U.S. Treasury has tools to address Puerto Rico's debt problems that it could use without Congressional passage of a bill.
Puerto Rico Sen. President Eduardo Bhatia Gautier also expressed opposition.
"The imposition of an unelected fiscal control board with enormous administrative and financial powers over Puerto Rico violates the democratic values that we have aspired to from time immemorial," Bhatia Gautier said. "The mandate of the board is to take more money from the poorest and worsen an economy already in ruins."
Gautier, who faces a June 5 primary vote, is in Washington lobbying against the bill. He indicated that he didn't have much hope that the U.S. House of Representatives will improve the bill. Rather, the U.S. Senate is the "last line of defense."
For his part, García Padilla has offered a more mixed take. He said the Natural Resources Committee had taken "an important step forward" by approving PROMESA.
"While there are critical components of the bill that will help Puerto Rico address its insolvency, protect essential services and grow its economy, I am concerned with the broad powers of the oversight board," the governor said. "Puerto Ricans are Americans and our democratic rights need to be protected…. I urge [U.S. House] Speaker [Paul] Ryan to amend the [bill's oversight provisions] as he brings PROMESA to the floor of the House as soon as possible. I appreciate the work done, but there is still more to do."
According to the El Vocero news web site, on May 19 García Padilla said that if the federal government passed PROMESA he would go to the United Nations to complain that the federal government was not living up the statements it made to the international community in the 1960s that Puerto Rico was no longer a colony.
