Puerto Rico Governor Jenniffer González Colón filed additional amendments to the permitting reform bill now moving through the Legislative Assembly, building on the substitute version the Senate approved in mid-October. That Senate substitute, of Senate Bill 1173 (PS 1173) and Senate Bill 1183 (PS 1183), merged elements of the measure introduced by Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz and the bill La Fortaleza filed in April, and it had already received further amendments before going to the House of Representatives.
The governor, a former House speaker, called her new filing a "substitute of the substitute," explaining that in legislative-technique terms it is easier than amending amendments, and that it incorporates more than 70 percent of the amendments the Senate already introduced. She said the House can convert her substitute into amendments to the Senate’s substitute bill.
Under the legislative process she described: if the House passes the measure with changes, it returns to the Senate; if the Senate disagrees, it goes to a conference committee, and the agreed version returns for votes in both bodies before reaching the governor’s signature. If the House instead approves the bill as it came from the Senate without her changes, it goes immediately to her signature or veto.
González Colón said the amendments contain her government’s vision, "harmonize" the Senate versions with the Executive’s, and aim for a reform that helps small and midsize businesses, facilitates investment and gives certainty to legal processes.