U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) announced last week that he had received a response to a letter he and several members of the Committee wrote to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last summer. He notes that he received “more questions than answers” from the department’s response. “There are proposals… Read more »

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows real signs of recovery from Hurricane Maria, even though the news is not all positive. Data from the 2017 and 2018 American Community Surveys (ACS) and Puerto Rico Community Surveys (PRCS) show that Puerto Rico’s poverty rate decreased by 1.3 percentage points, from 44.4% in 2017 to… Read more »

Eight Senate Democrats —including three running for president — and five House of Representatives Democrats have asked the PROMESA Financial Board (FOMB) to halt all Puerto Rico debt payments and negotiations until an independent investigation clears all Board Members of conflicts of interest. The letter led by Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) and fomer Sanders campaign… Read more »

The Democratic Party of Puerto Rico sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking her to support statehood for Puerto Rico for the same reasons she supports statehood for Washington, D.C. “We are grateful for your support,” the letter begins, citing the Speaker’s support for equal treatment of Puerto Rico under Medicaid and other… Read more »

Americans who live in a state can receive a Child Tax Credit of as much as $2,000 for each of their children up to age 17. They receive smaller amounts for kids 17 and 18 and for college students up to age 24. If the family paid in less than the amount of their tax… Read more »

The Government of Puerto Rico gave businesses and individuals $20.614 billion in tax breaks during calendar year 2017, a territorial Treasury Department report released over the weekend shows. The savings to taxpayers through 302 exemptions, exclusions, credits, and deductions was more than twice the $8,986,994 in tax revenue that the Government collected. More than three-quarters… Read more »

A continuing resolution has passed the U.S. House of Representatives, setting Congress on a path to avert a scheduled government shutdown on September 30 by extending federal spending until November 21, 2019. A provision to help Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program was included in the bill. Current federal law enables Puerto Rico to receive roughly half… Read more »

Freshman U.S. Representative media sensation Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) issued three “demands’ regarding Puerto Rico’s government debts yesterday. The first was to “audit the debt,” referring to a comprehensive audit vs. the review that the PROMESA Financial Board had done. The second was to “cancel the debt,” because the audit would “confirm what we already know,”… Read more »

Although she has said that statehood is not a priority for her government, Governor Wanda Vazquez Garced has also said that she favors statehood and will hold a new status vote if her party decides that should be done. A new plebiscite will include two choices: yes to statehood or no to statehood. Vazquez favors… Read more »

The Pew Research Center has released a new data analysis on people of Puerto Rican origin in the States. Their analysis of data from 2017 concludes that 5.6 million people of Puerto Rican descent now live in the States. This includes people born in Puerto Rico and descendants of people born in Puerto Rico who… Read more »