White House says more work needed on Republicans’ Puerto Rico plan

It seems as though House Republicans’ plan for Puerto Rico will not have exactly smooth sailing. House Democrats and The White House have expressed their concerns over HR 4900 or PROMESA, the bill introduced yesterday to address the crisis in the US territory of 3.5 million Americans.

The White House is concerned that proposed legislation in Congress to address Puerto Rico’s debt crisis will not give the U.S. commonwealth sufficient authority, and that more work needs to be done on the bill, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in a daily briefing that U.S. House Republicans’ proposal “was important progress, and we hope that we can keep that momentum going.”

If the disagreements are sharp enough to warrant Senate Democrats to stall or kill the bill if and once it is approved in the House, you can expect a long battle. The problem being, time is exactly what Puerto Rico does not have.