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It’s been months since any politician or mainstream media outlet has reported in detail on Puerto Rico. But the situation on the island remains dire—socially, politically, and financially. In addition to the ongoing, extensive recovery from Hurricane Maria, 2019 marks the 13th consecutive year of recession for Puerto Rico’s economy. The Financial Oversight and Management Board, created in 2016, was supposed to be overseeing the debt crisis and reducing government spending. But the board’s austerity measures have been controversial and now Democrats in the House of Representatives want to use their new majority to investigate the board.
According to The Washington Post, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) says that the board’s proposed cuts have made the island’s economic recovery more difficult. Grijalva is the incoming chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees Puerto Rican affairs. “It’s our responsibility as a committee—now as a majority—to treat the citizens of Puerto Rico as coequals,” said Grijalva. He hopes that the committee will visit the island and learn about both the board and the economy, which could lead to oversight hearings based on what they find.
While Grijalva blames the board for exacerbating the island’s economic misfortune, the fiscal board says it is not their fault. Instead, they shifted blame to the local government. A spokesman for the board says it is the island’s government that is making things worse by refusing to enact the board’s proposed cuts.
In November, the board sent a letter to House Democrats warning that the Puerto Rico’s deficits would only grow larger in the long term. In order to prevent this, they advised that the government would need to implement more reforms and use short-term surpluses to manage long-term deficits. Apparently, no one can agree on how to fix the debt and who’s to blame for it. But things continue to get worse. Hurricane Maria caused an estimated $43 billion in damages and the island owes $70 billion to bondholders. The island’s annual general fund budget is only $9 billion, all of which means bondholders will be waiting for their money for a long time.
Interestingly, the people of Puerto Rico have absolutely no say on who is on the fiscal board that is managing the debt. Members of the board are chosen by the White House from a list generated by members of Congress. Both Republicans and Democrats get to pick a slate of names to go on the list. And while Puerto Rico technically has a delegate in Congress, its delegate is a non-voting member which means they have no say in fixing what is so obviously broken.
So, in 2019, House Democrats will likely continue feuding with the board to try to get them to do better and the board will continue to feud with the local government to get them to make the cuts the board is proposing. And in the end, Puerto Ricans will continue to languish in an economy with an unemployment rate that is three times higher than the mainland U.S. and a population that is rapidly aging while young people leave the island in droves.
Thirteen years of continuous recession, two years of a fiscal oversight board and one year of hurricane recovery, it would seem that the federal government would be able to get something right in Puerto Rico. But it hasn’t yet. We still don’t have any simple answers to who’s at fault or what to do to fix the debt. But we know without a doubt who continues to lose in all of this: the people living in Puerto Rico.