Bernie Sanders called on Senate Democrats Monday to reject the Puerto Rico debt deal, introduced on the House floor last week.
“We have an important choice to make,” Sanders wrote in a letter to Senate Democrats on Monday. “Do we stand with the working people of Puerto Rico, or do we stand with Wall Street and the Tea Party? The choice could not be clearer.”
The Vermont senator argues that the House’s Bill, H.R. 5278, would “make a terrible situation even worse” by requiring the Puerto Rican government to submit a fiscal plan to an oversight board elected mainly by Republican leadership, with little to no input from Puerto Rican residents.
He is also opposed to the bill’s provision exempting Puerto Rico from the Department of Labor’s new overtime rules and allowing the governor to reduce the territory’s minimum wage to $4.25 an hour.
House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell each get two picks to the oversight board, whereas House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama each get one pick. Sanders also complained that conservative organizations and Wall Street trade groups endorsed the deal.
“We must make it clear that hedge fund managers on Wall Street cannot get a 100 percent return on Puerto Rican bonds they purchased for as little as 29 cents on the dollar yielding interest rates of up to 34 percent,” Sanders wrote to his fellow Democrats, “while the budget for hungry children in Puerto Rico would be cut.”
He added that the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department should be just as “creative in finding solutions to help the 3.5 million American citizens in Puerto Rico as they were in rescuing the largest financial institutions in this country and throughout the world in 2008.”
Sanders has been outspoken on the Puerto Rican debt crisis during his run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Sanders’ push to rally fellow senators to reject the deal will test whether he’s gained any influence on the Hill since he began his campaign. Thus far, several important Democratic lawmakers, including Pelosi and Sanders superdelegate Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, have endorsed the bill. But fellow progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has yet to take a position.
