On Monday, Senators Robert Menendez (NJ), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Maria Cantwell (Wash.), and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate that would allow Puerto Rico to declare bankruptcy and restructure its $72 billion in outstanding debt.
“For the 3.5 million American citizens living on the island of Puerto Rico, time is running short,” Menendez said. “Congress has to act immediately to fix the federal funding shortfalls and give Puerto Rico the tools it needs to fully restructure its debt.”
The bill would also create a fiscal oversight board, require Puerto Rico’s governor to adopt a five-year fiscal plan, and would put the residents of Puerto Rico’s commonwealth on par with residents of U.S. states in terms of tax relief and healthcare coverage.
These points cover exactly the three points the  PA for Puerto Rico coalition has said it wants to see addressed: 1) Let Puerto Rico declare bankruptcy and restructure its debt. 2) Remove inequities in Medicaid and healthcare coverage. 3) Expand tax credits to help boost the island’s economy. (The PA for Puerto Rico coalition includes Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez, former Councilman Angel Ortiz, and State Reps. Angel Cruz, Leslie Acosta and Kevin Boyle.)
Senate Republicans are not expected to support the bill — Republicans in general have been resistant to allowing the island to seek the same bankruptcy protections states and cities on the U.S. mainland are offered — and over in the House, Republicans are reportedly crafting their own debt crisis bill, with a  March 31 deadline set by the Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan (Wis.)
On the same day as the bill was announced, Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders released his plan for Puerto Rico — which proposes an in-depth audit of the debt to see if it was legally incurred. “A group of hedge fund billionaires are demanding austerity. They are demanding the firing of teachers, the closing of schools, so that they can reap huge profits off the suffering and misery of the children and the people of Puerto Rico. That is unacceptable,” reads Sanders’ statement on his website.
His plan also proposes a binding referendum to determine whether Puerto Rico should become independent, a state, or to reform the current commonwealth agreement; investment in solar and geothermal energy and plan to transition workers in the fossil fuel industry into clean energy jobs; universal free healthcare and education on the island, with a special emphasis on Vieques, which Sanders claims is one of the poorest municipalities on the island.
Hillary Clinton has said she supports the bankruptcy option for Puerto Rico; Marco Rubio, who easily swept the Puerto Rican GOP primary but roundly lost in Florida (where many of those who have left the island in the past few years now reside), did not.