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President Donald Trump has put Puerto Rico straight in his Twitter crosshairs in an attempt to tie the island's financial situation to partisan budget negotiations on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday night, Trump tweeted that "Democrats are trying to bail out insurance companies from disastrous  #ObamaCare , and Puerto Rico with your tax dollars. Sad!" On Thursday morning, he tweeted that Democrats "want to shut government if we don't bail out Puerto Rico and give billions to their insurance companies for OCare failure. NO!"  Follow Donald J. Trump   ✔ @realDonaldTrump Democrats are trying to bail out insurance companies from disastrous  # ObamaCare , and Puerto Rico with your tax dollars. Sad! 7:06 PM - 26 Apr 2017     14,393 14,393 Retweets     48,153 48,153 likes Trump's tweets come as island officials have been lobbying members of Congress to close a Medicare and Medicaid shortfall and earmark fund...

Last year, Congress passed a fiscal stability package for Puerto Rico known as "PROMESA." Among other things, it set up an oversight board and empowered a refinancing of Puerto Rico's crushing debt burden. As reported today in Reuters , negotiations continue with one class of bondholders--those connected to the Puerto Rican electricity utility known as "PREPA." The outcome of those negotiations could have a big effect on the future of the island in general, not just on debts. Getting the island's fiscal and debt policies right is instrumental in avoiding a taxpayer bailout of the island and even has a relationship to the tax reform debate in Washington. What's going on with PREPA? The former governor of Puerto Rico negotiated a debt settlement with PREPA that is widely considered (by both current governor Ricardo Rosello and the oversight board) as too favorable to the utility. This in turn creates a bad atmosphere for renegotiating the rest of th...

Puerto Rico's financial oversight board was a central part of last year’s  PROMESA  bill, a law passed in the U.S. Congress that allowed the commonwealth to avoid defaulting on billions of dollars in bond payments for a time. The board's revised plan,  announced Monday , calls for austerity measures and big cuts in public spending. The plan includes cuts to the University of Puerto Rico, a reduction in pension benefits and a $550 million reduction in the island's annual health care budget. The health care cuts could carry large consequences, as more than half of the island’s population is on government-provided health care. Hector Cordero-Guzman , a professor at City University of New York's Baruch College, said Washington, D.C.'s consideration of the island in Congress and in the courts is as important as the plan itself. RELATED:  Not even bankers can predict Puerto Rico's fiscal future How a debt crisis is affecting San Juan, Puerto Rico Would a ...

As Puerto Rico attempts to sort out its tangled financial web, retirees may face bigger cuts than those in past U.S. municipal insolvencies, due in part to an unconventional debt structure that pits pensioners against the very lenders whose money was supposed to sustain them. The U.S. territory is doing all it can to present itself as a reliable place to invest, but resolving the pensions issue will require a careful balance. Benefit structures are widely seen as unsustainable, but draconian cuts to pensioners could deepen the population's reliance on government subsidies and compound rampant emigration. By  Nick Brown Members of the Committee of retired Teachers of Puerto Rico's Teachers Federation protest against the underfunding of their pension system in San Juan, March 18, 2016 In Puerto Rico, pensions' decline pits retirees against lenders

Dozens of FBI agents are seizing documents and electronic equipment at the city hall of a financially struggling town in northern Puerto Rico. The special agent in charge of the FBI's San Juan division said Tuesday that agents were serving a search warrant at the government offices in Toa Baja. Douglas Leff said the FBI would turn over potential evidence to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The reason for the search isn't clear. The FBI did not release further details. The Internal Revenue Service recently froze Toa Baja's accounts because of a $1.5 million debt and the city government temporarily shut down most operations. Mayor Jorge Ortiz said he is cooperating and declined further comment. FBI agents raid financially troubled town in Puerto Rico

The federal board overseeing Puerto Rico's financial restructuring on Friday set a target date of Jan. 31, 2017 to certify a fiscal turnaround plan for the U.S. territory, and heard from bondholders and industry leaders about the merits of a draft of the proposal. The board, created this year under the Puerto Rico rescue law known as PROMESA, is working on debt restructuring talks with holders of Puerto Rico's $70 billion in bonds in an effort to pull the struggling island out of a crisis marked by a 45 percent poverty rate and shrinking population. The bipartisan, seven-member board must approve the island’s annual budgets and certify a fiscal turnaround plan submitted by its governor, Alejandro Garcia Padilla. The governor presented a draft plan last month, forecasting a financing gap as high as $59 billion over 10 years. While the plan proposes some revenue-generating measures to close the gap, it relies heavily on cutting repayments to bondholders. Board Chairman Jo...

Puerto Rican first lady Wilma Pastrana Jimenez on Monday welcomed Beatriz Areizaga Garcia, the wife of the island's governor-elect, Ricardo Rossello, to La Fortaleza, the gubernatorial residence. Pastrana Jimenez had invited her successor as first lady to visit the first family's residential area and the main halls in Santa Catalina Palace. According to a statement released by the Governor's Office, the pair discussed raising their children in the executive mansion, which was designated a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1983. The first lady explained the restoration work on the mansion carried out under the current administration not only in terms of preserving the historic site but also to increase the safety of residents, visitors and the enjoyment of La Fortaleza for all Puerto Ricans. The meeting also allowed the incoming first lady to chat with Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla and to visit the current first lady's office, from where in recent years she has he...

Puerto Rico’s cooperativa system—consisting of state-insured credit unions—faces huge financial losses and could collapse, costing low-income residents their life savings, the territory’s Governor, Alejandro Garcia Padilla told the federal oversight board overseeing Puerto Rico’s financial restructuring. In an Oct. 14 presentation to the oversight board, Padilla said that the cooperativas hold deposits for one-third of all island residents and have investment portfolios that are about 75% invested in commonwealth bonds. Puerto Rico faces a huge fiscal crisis and the island government has been unable to pay its debts. Earlier this year, Congress passed legislation creating the oversight board, which is charged with restructuring the government and its debt. The restructuring must protect the cooperativa system, Padilla said. Cooperativas are financial institutions insured by a territory government agency, the Corporation for the Supervision and Insurance of Cooperatives. There are...

Puerto Rico's economic activity index (EAI) for August fell 1 percent from a year earlier, the U.S. territory's fiscal agency reported on Tuesday. The Caribbean island's total EAI, an economic measurement correlated to gross national product, was 124.1 in August, the Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority said in a monthly report. Puerto Rico is burdened with $70 billion in debt, a 45 percent poverty rate and a rapidly declining population as its residents, who are U.S. citizens, emigrate in droves to the mainland United States. Its finances are now under the oversight of a federally appointed board tasked with helping the island restructure debt and overhaul its economy. The EAI is based on four economic indicators: total nonfarm payroll employment, electric power generation, gasoline consumption and cement sales. Nonfarm payroll employment was down 0.3 percent from a year ago, the report said, but the other indicators rose. Power generati...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor addressed a standing room only audience of students and women entrepreneurs on Friday, encouraging them to own their mistakes, be unafraid to ask for help and be fearless in the pursuit of their dreams. In an Oprah-esque question and answer session at San Juan's Caribe Hilton hotel, the first Latina Supreme Court Justice hugged, kissed members of the audience and autographed copies of her best selling memoir,  My Beloved World, as she doled out advise on everything from how to navigate law school (learn to write well, befriend the smartest student on campus) to how to overcome fear and believe in yourself to achieve your goals. Sotomayor visited the island and hosted a conversation with local businesswomen as well as students. "When I am down and out I look back and so I can look forward and say I have more I can do," said Justice Sotomayor in a room buzzing with excitement. The justice, whose parents migrated from the isla...

When Congress passed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) early this summer, it took a critical first step in getting Puerto Rico’s economy back on track.   The law puts in place a process to address past fiscal issues, while also identifying reforms to improve Puerto Rico’s economic future.   Currently, the law’s Congressional Task Force on Economic Development is hearing from stakeholders representing a variety of interests to determine which reforms Congress should pursue. While we agree there must be a comprehensive approach to ensure a long-term, stable recovery in Puerto Rico, the conversation should start with the ailing healthcare sector. Despite Puerto Rico’s inequitable treatment under federal law, healthcare is a critically important segment of Puerto Rico’s economy, employing about 85,000 people across the island. It also represents fertile ground for employment and economic growth. Economists have projected that a ...