Congress has a terrible time with deadlines. It’s not that it’s unable to meet real deadlines. Just the opposite, in fact: If it absolutely has to pass legislation by a given day it invariably figures out a way to get it done, no matter who is in charge. The trick is convincing everyone that there is, in fact, a drop-dead date.

One thing that has given impetus to the Puerto Rico fiscal reform legislation, which passed the House two weeks ago and will likely be taken up by the Senate this week, is that the members of Congress have been operating under the assumption that a legislative fix needs to come before July 1st, when the island has a bond payment due that it says it cannot make. The island’s governor, Alejandro Padilla, and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew insist that failing to have this legislation signed by July 1st will lead to some sort of economic crisis on the island.