The Senate is set to consider a bipartisan bill to create a federally appointed control board to address Puerto Rico’s debt crisis. The measure passed the House last week. Speaking on the House floor, Illinois Congressmember Luis Gutiérrez blasted fellow Democrats for supporting the control board he compared to the unelected emergency manager who switched the water supply in Flint, Michigan, poisoning the city’s residents.
Rep. Luis Gutiérrez: “I expect my Democrats to join me in opposing that same type of unelected control board that has no accountability to the people that it is controlling, the kind of control board focused on austerity without examining the consequences of their actions for the people, the kind of control board that made decisions in Flint, Michigan—Flint, Michigan—that poisoned the people, that they were not ever elected.”