And in an echo of the control board that Congress imposed on the District of Columbia in the 1990s, the Republicans’ bill would designate a “chief financial officer” for Puerto Rico to advise the island’s governor on drafting and sticking to an annual budget.

The designee would remain in place even if the government changes hands in next year’s election, giving Puerto Rico a better chance of seeing through its five-year economic recovery plan no matter who is elected. The five-year plan was announced in September.

The legislation was introduced by the Republican chairmen of three Senate committees with jurisdiction over Puerto Rico’s affairs: Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, whose Finance Committee has jurisdiction over tax policy; Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, whose Judiciary Committee is responsible for bankruptcy law; and Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, whose Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has jurisdiction over matters involving America’s territories.

Each of those committees has recently held a hearing on Puerto Rico’s travails, taking expert testimony on the severity of the island’s debt crisis and what might be done to restore stability and economic growth. In each of the hearings, Republicans said they wanted to help, but were troubled by a lack of information about the Puerto Rican government’s spending practices.

“Despite repeated attempts by Congress to clarify how the interplay between federal tax, health care and pension policies affect the territory’s economy, we have been unable to receive audited financial statements from Puerto Rico or adequate information from federal health officials,” Mr. Hatch said in a statement. “Federal taxpayers and the Puerto Rican people deserve better.”

He and the other senators said they had decided to go ahead with a bill based on the limited information they already had. They said it would take time to solve Puerto Rico’s problems, and in the meantime they hoped to get more financial information.

Lawmakers from both parties have been working toward a Jan. 1 deadline, when Puerto Rico owes bond payments of as much as $902 million, according to the Center for a New Economy, a nonpartisan research institute in San Juan. So far, the island has been struggling to stay current on most of its obligations. But officials say they are running out of cash and it is not clear that Puerto Rico will have enough money to pay what it owes on Jan. 1.