As the PROMESA law marks its tenth anniversary, key figures involved in its creation have highlighted its impact on Puerto Rico's debt crisis. The law, which has reduced the island's debt by nearly half, was passed in 2016 in response to a monumental fiscal and debt crisis, with a debt of $74,000 million. Antonio Weiss, then the second-in-command at the Treasury Department, stated that a broad and powerful restructuring authority without a supervision board would have been rejected by the Republican Congress.
The Republican leadership in Congress at the time claimed responsibility for imposing the Fiscal Supervision Board (JSF), which controls the finances of the elected Puerto Rican government. Former Republican Congressman Rob Bishop, who led the effort to pass the legislation, said that his team proposed the idea of the JSF. The law was signed by President Barack Obama on June 30, 2016, who stated that it was not perfect but moved in the right direction.
The JSF has been a controversial aspect of the law, with some sectors of the US and Puerto Rican governments trying to reduce its political impact.