Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies

Floor Speech

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Mr. SANDERS. Yes.

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Mr. SANDERS. I have a question. It is a long question, but I certainly want my friend from New Jersey to respond to that question.

I ask my colleague from New Jersey, is this legislation smacking of the worst form of colonialism, in the sense that it takes away all of the important democratic rights of the American citizens of Puerto Rico? Basically, four Republicans, who likely believe in strong austerity programs, will essentially be running that island for the indefinite future. Would my friend from New Jersey agree this is colonialism at its worst?

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Mr. SANDERS. I ask my friend from New Jersey--there is a very strong difference of opinion in the Senate and in the House about economic issues. Many of our Republican friends think trickle-down economics-- giving tax breaks to the wealthy, cutting Social Security, cutting Medicare, cutting Medicaid, cutting education--is the way they would like to see our country move forward. Does my friend from New Jersey have any doubt, if you have a financial control board dominated by four Republicans, that is exactly the type of philosophy that will be imposed on the people of Puerto Rico?

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Mr. SANDERS. I am. Let me ask the Senator from New Jersey, a significant part of Puerto Rico's $70 billion debt has been acquired in recent years by vulture funds. These are folks who purchase bonds for as little as 29 cents on the dollar and who get interest rates of up to 34 percent. I believe something like one-third--I may be wrong on this, but I believe about one-third of the debt of Puerto Rico is now controlled by these vulture funds. People who buy, by definition, ``risky bonds'' but now want to get 100 percent on the dollar, despite the fact that they paid a fraction of what the bond is worth--from a moral perspective, should the U.S. Senate be supporting legislation which allows vulture capitalists, some of whom are billionaires, to make huge profits while at the same time nutrition programs and educational programs for low-income children in Puerto Rico are cut? Does that sound like the kind of morality that should be passed in the U.S. Senate?

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Mr. SANDERS. Let me add another point to that very discussion, which I have a hard time understanding and maybe my friend from New Jersey can educate me on this. As I understand, in this bill, there is a requirement that Puerto Rico, a territory that has been experiencing a 10-year depression, a territory in which over half of the children are living in poverty, a territory in which many schools have been shut down, where people have been laid off, where unemployment is sky high, that within this legislation, there is the imposition that the people of Puerto Rico are going to have to pay for this control board to the tune--and I don't understand this--of $370 million. You have a board of seven people. No. 1, how in God's Name do you run up an administrative cost of $370 million? Yes, you need staff and you need all that stuff, but $370 million to run a small bureaucracy sounds to be totally off the charts. Then, to tell the people of Puerto Rico, you are going to have to shut down schools, you are going to have to shut down health services, we may take away the pensions of your workers, and, oh, by the way, you are going to have to pay $370 million in order to fund this control board--am I missing anything here? I know this sounds so absurd that people may think I am misleading them, but am I missing anything here or is that the reality?

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Mr. SANDERS. So it means, or it certainly could mean, the closing down of schools, nutrition programs, and health care in order to fund-- and I cannot for the life of me understand how a seven-member committee can spend $370 million, but this will be taking away perhaps basic needs from hungry kids in order to maintain what seems to me an extraordinary bureaucracy.

With that, I thank the Senator from New Jersey for his leadership, and I look forward to working with him.

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