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Rafael Fantauzzi, National Puerto Rican Coalition on Puerto Rico and Chapter 9 - YouTube
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in 1984 Congress passed bankruptcy
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legislation that included a definition
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for the term state that definition
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excluded Puerto Rico from chapter 9 of
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the bankruptcy laws and for the next few
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minutes we'll discuss efforts to amend
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that code and treat Puerto Rico as a
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state when it comes to chapter 9 hello
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everyone and welcome to Comcast
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newsmakers I'm Robert Traynham and i'm
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joined today by rafael font too easy
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he's the president and CEO of the
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National Puerto Rican coalition Rafael
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welcome to the program thank you Robert
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so why do we need this because one would
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think that as Puerto Rico as not
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necessarily a part of the homeland or
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the mainland rather but and also not a
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state you could make the argument that
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it's somewhere in the middle so why do
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we need this bankruptcy updated
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legislation well you know the reality is
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that for a lot of things Porto Rico has
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been included in a lot of considerations
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when it comes to congressional
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legislation in this case this was an
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omission that wasn't it wasn't on
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purpose but it is an incredible
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mechanism that assists municipalities to
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be able to handle dead consolidation or
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renegotiation so in other words when
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they issue bonds and so forth they're
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able to raise the money and therefore be
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protected under bankruptcy law if in
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fact that happens that is correct it's
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an organized mechanism that it's
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essential that in Sutton a lot of states
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do have and we think it's important for
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Puerto Rico to also be included and why
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do you think Puerto Rico was excluded
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from the beginning back in nineteen
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eighty-four you know I don't think it
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was intentional I think it was just an
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oversight so you know that that we don't
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renessa sara lee or focusing on that
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we're just trying to focus on right now
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where it's mostly needed and in case
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there is an opportunity to be able to
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use it not that it's going to be used
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but it would be important for Puerto
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Rico to have that tool because it will
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enable the process to be an organized
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process and speaking of the process
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Rafael I assume this has to go through
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the house and the Senate and presumably
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the president has to sign this until all
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since it's a technical fix in the law or
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is there something different here you
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know what it has to go everywhere and it
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has to be it will probably be included
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in some bigger bigger legislation and
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you know and and see
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that mechanism passes through but that's
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why it's important for us to continue to
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solicit the support of all members of
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Congress and the community and speaking
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of members of Congress are there any
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members of Congress that are Adamle
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opposed to this and if so why well you
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know what there are there people on both
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sides there are people on both sides i
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think that deputy the detractors are
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mostly concerned that because the bond
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holders are saying that now this is
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happening after they were able to
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purchase device that you know it could
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it really gives them a little bit of a
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little bit of concern but we're just
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trying to tell them that this is an
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organized mechanism if we don't have
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that who knows what could happen and are
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you optimistic that something like this
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could pass the congress let's say within
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the next year or so if not sooner you
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know we are we are there is bipartisan
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support and there's also a lot of
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support from every party on the island
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so everybody's united and to make sure
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that Puerto Rico would be included into
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this this is a critical question back in
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2008 there was a whole federal bailout
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if you will of the general motors and of
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the financial industry and so forth is
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there any risk of a federal bailout if
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in fact something like this passes the
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Congress there is and as a matter of
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fact we believe that there are probably
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probably two months away for something
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like that two months that's correct if
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mechanisms are not put into place is the
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Department of Treasury does not actually
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get more actively involved and that
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could be that could be good politically
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or bad politically so all of these
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things could be very helpful so Rafael
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it sounds like the time for action is
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now it sounds like this is something
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that's needed now more than ever for all
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the reasons that you just mentioned in a
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few moments ago we've got about 20
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seconds left very quickly is there
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anything that the general public that's
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watching this program now is anything
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they can do should they write their
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member of Congress should I write the
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president what should they do you know
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all of those things are always very
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helpful we need we need a lot of people
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in the community voters to actually
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contact their congressional
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representatives and say we support this
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because we have to take care of our
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American citizens Rafael thought to Z
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thank you very much for joining us thank
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you very man thank you for joining us
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for this edition of Comcast newsmakers
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I'm Robert Traynham have a great day
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everybody will see you next time bye bye
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you
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