With debt payment looming, House weighs Puerto Rico bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republican leaders and President Barack Obama pressured lawmakers in both parties to back legislation to help ease Puerto Rico's financial crisis as the U.S. territory faces a $2 billion debt payment in just over three weeks.

Republican and Democratic leaders support it, as does the Obama administration, but it faces opposition from both sides, as well, as some bondholders, unions and island officials who have lobbied against the bill.

Puerto Rico, which has struggled to overcome a lengthy recession, has missed several payments to creditors and faces the $2 billion installment on July 1.

The economic crisis has forced businesses to close, driven up the employment rate and sparked an exodus of hundreds of thousands of people to the U.S. mainland.

The control board would "cast aside bondholder contracts and retroactively subvert them to Puerto Rico's government pension system at its sole discretion," a group called Main Street Bondholders said in a release this week.

During negotiations, the administration pushed to ensure that pensions are protected in the bill, while creditors worried they would take a back seat to the pension obligations.