Rob Bishop

Changing it is not going to solve the issue at hand. It is like trying to expand home plate.

The PROMESA legislation was unique in the annals of Congress.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman pro tem. I just want to quickly thank the witnesses for being here.

Let's face it, the problems that Puerto Rico is facing right now, that the island is facing, simply come from a lot of bad decisions that were made in past governments.

Massive debt is what caused Puerto Rico so much pain, and what is holding Puerto Rico's economic recovery back.

Despite progress with the Board, little changed in the past 3 years in Puerto Rico's government, other than the resignation of the previous governor.

I thank the Resident Commissioner for her stalwart leadership and the work she conducts to find real solutions for her 3 million constituents.

Unfortunately, the Democrat bill under consideration here today is not a realistic step forward for the island, but another empty attempt to halt real progress for our fellow Americans.

Nevertheless, Ms. Jaresko's testimony today will provide valuable insight into the actual progress the Board and the new governor are carrying out.

I want to thank the Governor, Wanda Vazquez Garced, for declining to appear at this fabricated circus.

The answer, much to my dismay but to the surprise of no one is simple: Democrats would rather listen to their radical special interests groups than to consider the detrimental impacts this reckless proposal will have on the current fragile…

The Majority has decided to propose an effort that would catastrophically dismantle every bit of the balanced law that Congress and the Obama administration worked so hard to put in place.

Today, unfortunately, we sit here to consider the exact opposite of what a bi-partisan compromise looks like.

It was made possible by the sincere and genuine commitments made by both Democrats and Republicans to put aside politics, realize we were dealing with an unprecedented situation, and work for the betterment of the territory.

Three years ago this Committee crafted a bi-partisan compromise between the then Republican-controlled Congress and the Obama administration Treasury Department to help bring stability to Puerto Rico's quickly unraveling debt crisis.

If you say of your elders, I am going to go on for another 3 minutes.

I mean, if you could use the term, there should be bipartisan butt hurt here.

Look, oversight is the responsibility of Congress, and it is good. And when it is bipartisan it can yield good results.

When Secretary Bernhardt took over as Acting Secretary, the Department produced for this Committee over 100,000 pages of information from 22 different oversight requests.

However, our Department, under the Trump administration has produced 12,000 documents that are over 100,000 pages.

The number of Members who are here is heartening.

Oversight is the responsibility of Congress, and it is good. And when it is bipartisan it can yield good results.

I am going to end with the final conclusion, again, that it is a redundancy because it is already being done. Why don't you just mandate that everything we are doing in every other department be done at the same time? It would have the…

I don't want to try to be snarky on these kinds of amendments, but it is already being done. It is a nice concept. It was stopped, but it has also started again. So this calls for a study to continue and resume. They have already done it…

I claim the time in opposition to the amendment. The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from Utah is recognized for 5 minutes.