Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell are urging Congress to take action on the economic and fiscal crisis in Puerto Rico, reports Reuters.
The U.S. treasury and health chiefs made the urging in a letter to U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Tuesday. In the letter, they said a bipartisan congressional task force report did not do enough on recommending a low-income tax credit for Puerto Rico, and reaffirmed calls to increase healthcare funding there, according to the report.
The U.S. secretaries also said 900,000 residents of the U.S. territory could risk losing healthcare unless Congress took action by April, reports Reuters.
Puerto Rico is currently dealing with an economic and fiscal crisis. This crisis includes $70 billion in debt, unemployment more than twice the U.S. average, a 45 percent poverty rate and a decreasing population, according to the report.
Last month, a bipartisan congressional task force in a report recommended increasing healthcare funding for Puerto Rico and looking into giving the U.S. territory access to the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, among other potential fixes, reports Reuters. However, the report states, the U.S. secretaries said the report did not go far enough with the tax credit.
For more on this story, read the full Reuters report here.