On the recordJune 9, 2016
I stand before you today to discuss H.R. 5278--Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA). Our consideration of PROMESA must be a very thoughtful analysis of an outcome where the people of Puerto Rico will be empowered and be on a path towards progress where working families, their children and pensioners can be on a pathway towards a better future. PROEMSA is a bipartisan measure and effort to assist the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in restructuring $70 billion in currently unpayable debt, an amount that exceeds the size of its entire economy. There are a total of 3.548 million people living on the island of Puerto Rico. Since 2006, Puerto Rico's economy has shrunk by more than 10 percent and shed more than 250,000 jobs. More than 45 percent of the Commonwealth's residents live in poverty--the highest poverty rate of any state or territory. Furthermore, its 11.6 percent unemployment rate is more than twice the national level. The challenges facing the people of Puerto Rico have ignited the largest wave of outmigration since the 1950's, and the pace continues to accelerate. More than 300,000 people have left Puerto Rico in the past decade with a record of 84,000 people leaving in 2014. Puerto Ricans suffer from high rates of forced migration due to the better opportunities offered in the United States compared to in the commonwealth. The gap between emigrants and immigrants has been continuously widening.…
