Ryan: No timeline for Puerto Rico action

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) made no prediction Tuesday on when the House would again take up a stalled Puerto Rico debt relief bill other than to say Republicans were making “good progress.”

Speaking to reporters, Ryan deferred questions on when the House Natural Resources Committee would again take up the legislation to that panel’s chairman, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah).

{mosads}“He’ll go when he’s ready to go,” said Ryan.

Earlier in the day, Ryan’s office said the House was “incorporating additional member input” on the bill.

Republicans have been working to build up support on the legislation ever since the committee had to cancel a markup of the bill at the last minute Wednesday. House Republicans met privately Friday to discuss the bill.

Ryan described the meeting as primarily educational, as many members were not intimately familiar with the details of the bill or the debt crisis in Puerto Rico. But there are some conservatives that are critical of the legislation, which establishes an outside board to review the island’s finances but also gives the island the power to seek a court-ordered restructuring of some of its debt.

After Friday’s meeting, GOP leaders said they would be reworking the legislation to address some of those concerns. Whether it can bring wary conservatives on board while also not losing Democratic support critical to the bill’s success is another question.

Puerto Rican officials say years of economic decline and the mass exodus of people to the rest of the United States has left the island unable to pay back all of the $72 billion in debt it owes. The island is expected to default on a debt payment due on May 1 without congressional assistance.