PREPA Debt Agreement Reached

Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB), the Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority (AAFAF in Spanish) and the Electric Power Authority (PREPA) have finally reached a restructuring support agreement (RSA) with holders of 51% of the public utility’s revenue bonds.

Under the RSA, bondholders will exchange their existing power revenue bonds for two types of securitization. Series A bonds will comprise about 67.5% of the value of the existing bonds while Series B bonds will be “growth bonds,” linked to the economic recovery of Puerto Rico and the repayment of the Series A bonds. The repayment of the bonds will be backed by a fixed transition charge on customer’s electric service bill, meaning it will not vary with PREPA’s sales fluctuation.

Tomas Torres, the consumer representative on PREPA’s board, voted against the restructuring agreement because he believes it “would increase rates substantially.”

Under a previous RSA, negotiated by Alix Partners, PREPA would have paid $6.25 billion over 10 years, but under the RSA announced Friday, the amount would be reduced to $3.2 billion over 10 years.

Court Grants 60 More Days to Confirm FOMB Members

President Donald Trump and the U.S. Senate now have until July 15 to confirm the current members of the Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB), after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit extended the current moratorium—which allows the Board to keep operating despite its members being appointed unconstitutionally—by sixty days. Although, last month President Trump announced that he intended to re-nominate the FOMB’s current membership, no official nomination has been submitted to the Senate.

Natalie Jaresko, the FOMB’s executive director, expressed skepticism about the possibility that the FOMB confirmation process would be concluded before the new deadline. She has previously testified that, if it happened, it would unleash “chaos in the courts and on the Island.” Meanwhile, Governor Ricardo Rosselló said that the First Circuit’s new ruling “gives certainty” and “a sense of urgency” to the process.

Trump Resumes Tantrums Against Puerto Rico

This week, President Trump repeated false accusations that Puerto Rico received $91 billion in funding to mitigate the harm caused by hurricane Maria. The comment comes just as the House introduced a new disaster-funding bill.

The new bill adds $3 billion for flooding in the Midwest region and keeps all of the funding that was included in the original bill that was passed in January. The bill is expected to be on the House floor on Friday. Even if the House passes the bill, the Senate is expected to remain gridlocked over how much funding Puerto Rico should receive. The original bill included $600 million in nutritional assistance for the Island, $25 million to dredge the Martin Peña channel, $5 million to study the effectiveness of federal nutrition aid on Puerto Rico and a cost-share waiver allowing the government of Puerto Rico to not incur expenses during the debris-removal process by FEMA.

Florida Judge Demands Ruling on Spanish-language Sample Ballots be Carried Out

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker lashed out at several counties resisting a court order that sample ballots be provided in Spanish and signaled that he would continue to order Florida counties to assist Spanish-speaking voters from Puerto Rico. Speaking to lawyers representing plaintiffs, Judge Walker said about those who resist his order, “I would not hesitate a nanosecond to haul them into court or throw them into jail.” In September, Judge Walker ordered 32 counties to provide Spanish-language sample ballots and notify Spanish-speaking voters about them. He pointed out that Puerto Rican voters are protected by federal law and said he was willing to hold election supervisors in contempt if they fail to follow voting laws.

FEMA Delays Complicate Healthcare in Vieques

Almost 20 months after Hurricane Maria, FEMA has yet to decide whether to reconstruct Vieques’s only hospital. Reconstruction experts say it often takes FEMA months or years to decide how to reconstruct facilities damaged by natural disasters, noting similarly-long deliberations slowed efforts to rebuild hospitals and other infrastructure after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy. The ongoing delays forces Vieques residents to travel to the Puerto Rico mainland in order to obtain medical services.

While FEMA set up temporary hospitals for residents of Vieques, observers noted that these still lack the ability to perform key medical procedures such as births, telemedicine and dialysis with proper water filtration.