Congressional Task Force seeks input on P.R. growth
The Congressional Task Force on Economic Growth in Puerto Rico has set up an email to receive suggestions for the island’s growth.
The Congressional Task Force on Economic Growth in Puerto Rico, which is responsible for identifying impediments to economic growth in the territory and recommending changes, announced Thursday it is seeking input from stakeholders.
The call comes a day after the group’s staffers reportedly met in Washington to begin laying down the groundwork for the work at hand in coming months, as this media outlet reported.
“As we work in a bipartisan manner to identify what reforms are needed to grow the Puerto Rican economy and promote prosperity on the island, we are interested in stakeholder input,” the Task Force members said in a joint statement.
“Information and insights, from both the public and private sectors in Puerto Rico, will be useful to the Task Force as it analyzes impediments to growth on the island stemming from Federal law and programs and arrives at recommendations to remove current barriers to growth,” the statement read.
U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch — who chairs the task force — Rep. Tom MacArthur of New Jersey; Rep. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin; Rep. Nydia Velazquez of New York; Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico’s congressional member; and Senators Marco Rubio of Florida; Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Bill Nelson of Florida, comprise the group.
The Task Force is required to produce a report that describes “impediments in current federal law and programs to economic growth in Puerto Rico,” including “equitable access to federal health care programs,” Pierluisi said upon being appointed to the group in July.
The Task Force is also required to highlight recommended changes to federal law and programs that, if adopted, would spur sustainable long-term economic growth, promote job creation, reduce child poverty, and attract investment in Puerto Rico.
Prior to release of the final report, the Task Force must provide a status update between Sept. 1 and Sept. 15 that includes a discussion of matters that Hatch deems urgent for consideration by Congress.
Submissions can be made at the Task Force’s mailbox at [email protected]. The deadline to respond is Sept. 2, 2016.
“All submissions will be considered part of the public record and should be clear and concise, directed at the issues that the Task Force is charged to consider, and provided in the form of an attachment to the email [either in Microsoft Word or text-searchable PDF file],” according to the statement.
“The email containing the attachment should clearly indicate the names of the authors, contact information, and any professional affiliation,” the Task Force statement further noted.
