(Bloomberg) — U.S. lawmakers agreed to extend some health care aid to Puerto Rico as part of a $1.1 trillion spending bill that would avert a government shutdown, a step that fell far short of the lifeline the Caribbean island was seeking to rescue it from its escalating debt crisis.
The legislation, which marks Congress's first step to assist Puerto Rico, failed to include any of the island's key priorities, opting instead for measures that would increase health funding by about $900 million over a decade and allow the Treasury Department to provide technical assistance. The bill may be the last chance this year for the commonwealth to receive help from the federal government.
The bill doesn't provide "any meaningful provision to help Puerto Rico address its economic and fiscal challenges," Pedro Pierluisi, the territory's non-voting House member, said in a statement. "Leaders in Congress missed a major opportunity to do the right thing."
Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla has been pleading with lawmakers for assistance as it runs out of cash and struggles to pay its $70 billion of debt. The commonwealth this month narrowly averted a default on government-guaranteed debt for the first time and may be unable to cover $957 million due to investors on Jan. 1.
The bill's text didn't include a provision to grant Puerto Rico agencies access to Chapter 9 bankruptcy, one of the island's key requests.
Puerto Rico had also been prodding lawmakers to give it the same funding that states receive under the Medicaid and Medicare health care programs, saying the disparity has helped create the government's chronic fiscal strain. The spending bill didn't address the full scope of that disparity. Instead, it would increase Medicare payments to hospitals and provide bonuses to doctors and facilities that adopt electronic record keeping.
It also includes a provision allowing the Treasury to provide technical assistance to Puerto Rico, which may include money for economic forecasting, cash management and other planning, according to Pierluisi.
