"Congress should take action on a long term plan to deal with Puerto Rico's debt crisis now--no more excuses, no more delays. Republican congressional leadership claims they will work with Democrats to pass a legislative package for Puerto Rico by the end of March, so, in the meantime, Congress needs to pass this bill to give the island critical legal protections," said Warren, Massachusetts' senior senator."The Puerto Rican people have been asked to bear huge costs of a long running debt crisis, and now Congress should do its part for the millions of Americans in Puerto Rico who are trying to build a future for themselves and for their kids."‎

"Puerto Rico desperately needs this short term financial tourniquet to stop its fatal bleeding, even as we fight for a real cure.‎ If Congress waits until a messy and disruptive default has begun, the price of addressing the crisis-in both dollars and human suffering of our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico-will be immense and irreparable. Puerto Rico has already missed a debt payment to one class of creditors and indicated that it will be unable to make payments to others. By year's end, Puerto Rico could face expensive and unnecessary creditor lawsuits as a result of its lack of access to an orderly process for restructuring its debt. Those lawsuits would drain precious resources from the island's treasury-resources that will then be unable either to pay creditors or to meet the basic needs of the Puerto Rican people," said Sen. Blumenthal.