On the day set aside to celebrate Puerto Rico’s constitution, a group of U.S. senators introduced a bill to forgive Puerto Rico’s debt. Puerto Rico owes more than $70 billion to creditors. Then Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla declared the debt “unpayable” in 2015. The PROMESA fiscal oversight board was put in place to help, among… Read more »
by Howard Hills* An essay featured by the Guam Daily Post recently asked why Guam bemoans its lack of local self-determination, but never revived its dormant process for adopting a territorial constitution. It’s a question I have been asking for 30 years. A territorial constitution was authorized by Congress in 1978, and drafted by a… Read more »
Former Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño recently wrote an article for The Hill reminding readers that “Puerto Rico has voted for statehood…twice.” Does Puerto Rico want statehood? First he called out Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, who claimed in an opinion piece at The Hill that the people of Puerto Rico don’t want statehood. In fact, Puerto… Read more »
The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) of the Department of the Interior has created a draft recovery plan for the Coquí Llanero, Puerto Rico’s smallest tree frog and is requesting comments by the public. The Coqui Llanero is currently on the Endangered Species list. The FWS introduces its plan with a surprisingly lyrical description of the tiny… Read more »
The Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, or PROMESA, established a Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB) for Puerto Rico. The law specified that “The purpose of the board is to provide a method for a covered territory to achieve fiscal responsibility and access to the capital markets. The board must be created… Read more »
HR 6246, the Puerto Rico Admissions Act of 2018, started out with 37 cosponsors. As of this writing, there are 43. Who are they? First, they are a bipartisan group. 19 Democrats and 24 Republicans have cosponsored this bill so far. Second, they are not the same group that has supported Puerto Rico status bills… Read more »
Enrique Fernandez Toledo, Director of Puerto Rico Relief and Economic Development Policy for the Center for American Progress (CAP) led fourteen CAP staff members on a fact-finding trip to Puerto Rico and came back with some key conclusions. “Our visit allowed us to witness firsthand the creative and courageous response to the crisis by brave individuals and… Read more »
This screenshot shows that searches for the answer to the question, “Who is the president of Puerto Rico?” peaked last fall right after Hurricane Maria’s catastrophic landfall in Puerto Rico. It also shows that people are still looking for the answer to that question. So who is the president of Puerto Rico? As of this… Read more »
Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez Colon touted support of her recently introduced Puerto Rico admission legislation this morning from the floor of the United States House of Representatives. Her unofficial remarks are copied below: On June 27, I was joined by more than 40 members of this house in introducing H.R. 42 — 6246,… Read more »
In the video below, a drunken Timothy G. Trybus harasses a woman wearing a shirt showing the flag of Puerto Rico. He steps into her personal space and speaks to her in offensive terms. She asks a nearby police officer, identified as Patrick Connor, to remove him. Governor Ricardo Rossello has asked that the police… Read more »
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