WASHINGTON – House Republican leaders plan to hold a policy meeting Friday morning with their members on pending legislation for Puerto Rico to try to gain more support for it.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters about the meeting during a briefing on Thursday after conceding that Natural Resources Committee chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, didn’t have enough votes to push the bill through the panel.
“He did not have votes on the other side of the aisle going into the markup. He didn’t have the Democrat votes there,” Ryan said.
Ryan said the sponsors and staff who have worked on the Puerto Rico bill will brief House Republicans on it and the fact that the measure has been designed to prevent a bailout or any taxpayer involvement in addressing the territory’s woes.
“I think people, once they understand … the direction we’re headed with an oversight board” will support the bill, Ryan told reporters. “A lot of our members just need to come up to speed on this issue.”
The vote had been scheduled for Thursday morning, but was postponed on an indefinite basis Wednesday night after committee members put statements into the record for the vote.
Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., the only committee member that read his statement, opposed the bill as being a bailout and warned it would lead other states to demand the same treatment.
The bill would create an oversight committee to help Puerto Rico get its fiscal house in order. The oversight committee also would have the power to file restructuring petitions on behalf of Puerto Rico or its authorities.
During a hearing on the bill earlier on Wednesday, at least four Republicans, including McClintock, criticized it for being a bailout of the commonwealth and for setting a bad precedent for U.S. states. The other Republicans that opposed the bill were Reps. John Fleming from Louisiana, Jeff Duncan from South Carolina, and Jody Hice from Georgia.
Their views mirrored those espoused by the Center for Individual Freedom, which has been running national ads opposing the bill. The ads are aimed at stoking fears about a possible Super Chapter 9 solution allowing Puerto Rico to file for bankruptcy protection, warning this would lead financially troubled states like Illinois to take similar steps. The group has budgeted about $2 million for ads, according to knowledgeable sources.
During the hearing, committee members and those who testified at the hearing, including Antonio Weiss, counselor to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, indicated they still did not fully support the bill and said that some changes still need to be made to it.
