Washington, D.C. – Today marks 10 years since the federal government created Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB) under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), to address the territory’s mid-2010s debt crisis. The FOMB has successfully restructured over $40 billion of the island’s debt. But its federally appointed, unelected structure and its overreliance on austerity measures have imposed lasting costs on Puerto Rico’s 3.2 million U.S. citizens. The Board retains sweeping control over the island’s budget, limiting the ability of Puerto Rico’s elected government to set its own fiscal and economic priorities.
Congress should bring the FOMB’s mandate to a close and end the territorial framework that enables control over Puerto Rico’s governance. Doing so would advance democratic accountability, political equality and a stronger foundation for long term prosperity through responsible investment.
“While the FOMB has overseen a largely successful debt restructuring process, its continued existence contradicts a basic democratic principle reflected in both the U.S. and Puerto Rico Constitutions: officials who exercise ultimate authority over public funds should be accountable to the people they govern,” said George Laws Garcia, executive director of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council.
“The Board can reject budgets approved by Puerto Rico’s legislature, signed by its governor and funded by its taxpayers, despite having no electoral mandate from Puerto Rico’s residents. It also has not done enough to advance pro-growth fiscal policies that can expand opportunity, strengthen revenues and reduce the pressure that drives residents to leave the island. Congress should complete the FOMB’s mission, dissolve the Board and enact legislation to end Puerto Rico’s territory status, which is the central structural barrier to the island’s full economic potential and long-term fiscal health.”
Since PROMESA’s enactment, Puerto Rico has made meaningful progress in fiscal management and economic recovery, owing in large part to local elected leaders and the hard work of the island’s residents. Puerto Rico’s GDP grew 3.2% in 2024, compared with 2.8% for the U.S. overall. Yet growth has not been consistently strong enough to overcome the long-term constraints associated with unequal territorial treatment.
Puerto Rico’s unemployment rate has also fallen by 49% since FOMB’s creation. That progress is welcome, but it must be viewed alongside continued population loss, as many residents have moved to the states in search of broader opportunity and full political equality. These trends demonstrate that fiscal discipline alone cannot secure durable economic progress. Puerto Rico also needs a legal and constitutional framework that provides equality, democratic accountability and the tools to pursue sustainable economic growth and prosperity.
“True economic progress requires changing the underlying structure of territorial governance – an arrangement Puerto Rico’s voters have repeatedly rejected in favor of statehood and the full equality and democratic accountability it would provide,” concluded Laws Garcia.
“Our nation was founded on the principle of government by the consent of the governed. A decade of Board control is a reminder that prosperity and productivity are best advanced not by extending territorial control, but by treating American citizens equally under the law and giving Puerto Rico’s residents the power to hold their elected officials accountable through active participation in democratic institutions.”
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The Puerto Rico Statehood Council is a Washington, D.C. based, non-partisan, 501(c)4 non-profit issue advocacy organization. We are dedicated to advancing the goal of full equality and democracy for the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico through statehood.