Jim Sensenbrenner: “I visited Puerto Rico, and believe me when I say the fiscal crisis the island is facing is, in every way, a crisis.…”

“I visited Puerto Rico, and believe me when I say the fiscal crisis the island is facing is, in every way, a crisis. Hospitals can't pay their bills. They have closed wings of the hospital. One hospital is $4 million in debt because they haven't paid an electric bill. Some people will point out that this is largely a crisis of Puerto Rico's own making. They are right; the gentleman from Illinois is wrong. Puerto Rico has had internal self-government for over 50 years. It wasn't the Congress that forced Puerto Rico to pile up debt after debt after debt after debt; and it wasn't the Congress that tapped Puerto Rico on the shoulder until now and said: You can't sustain this debt. There already have been two defaults. There is a $2 billion default coming on the 1st of July because they don't have the money to even do their debt service; and despite this dire situation, the Puerto Rican Government has increased its spending on everything except, ironically, debt service. I see what is happening in Puerto Rico as a cautionary tale for us here in Washington and here in the Congress of the United States. Now, PROMESA is not rewarding bad behavior. If we wanted to reward bad behavior, we would pay billions of dollars in a taxpayer-financed bailout to finance all of this irresponsible borrowing that has been going on in Puerto Rico. Significantly, this bill does not commit one penny of taxpayer funds to bail out Puerto Rico.…”