A key House Committee nixed a bid by island delegates to try to add key tax breaks and Medicaid relief for their islands, on a bill to save Puerto Rico from major default. KHJ News Washington D.C. Correspondent Matt Kaye reports…
It was a setback for the delegates, but maybe not a permanent one, as Rules Committee Republicans kept the mostly Democratic delegates from offering their amendments to the Puerto Rico debt bill, on the House floor.
The Rules panel decides which amendments are allowed on the floor.
The only Republican delegate, American Samoa’s Aumua Amata Radewagen, worked behind the scenes to try to get Chairman Pete Sessions and other Committee Republicans to allow amendments to boost federal Medicaid to the islands, and provide reimbursement for low-income workers and child tax credits.
But the GOP had enough of a battle to keep Democrats from ‘piling onto’ the bill with their amendments, plus the cost of the delegate amendments, helped sink the concerted, week’s long islanders’ effort.
Radewagen insisted, it would not be their last—
Play Audio
Amata proposed a child tax credit for the territories…Guam’s Madeleine Bordallo proposed lifting the territories’ Medicaid cap and increasing federal Medicaid reimbursement to the islands…the CNMI’s Greg ‘Kilili’ Sablan offered a reimbursable Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income workers in the territories.
Congresswoman Radewagen called the united effort by the delegates a ‘marker’ for future negotiations on a likely follow-up Puerto Rico bill.
