Judge Laura Taylor Swain refuses to delay start of hearings to confirm debt settlement plan

for the judge Laura Taylor Swain His patience with Puerto Rico is running out and therefore, on Monday, he decided to keep the Central Government Amendment Plan (PDA) confirmation hearing on November 8, and the JSF, in doing so, ordered the governor Pedro Pierluisi And the legislature to engage in a mediation process.

Also, frankly, Swain has instructed the financial authority not to withdraw the PDA — as it threatened before the legislature’s impasse — until a mediation team led by bankruptcy judge, mediation team leader Barbara Hauser, reports next November. 2 to check if the PDA confirmation session can actually take place on the specified dates.

at a meeting that It took about two hours and four minutes, Swain worried that because of the lack of an agreement and after millions of Puerto Rican taxpayer dollars and countless hours of negotiations, Puerto Rico could lose the protection it had hitherto enjoyed with the federal Promesa Act. The law protected the island from all kinds of lawsuits and lawsuits for non-payment of debts for a period of five years.

Faced with this risk of jeopardizing the operations of the Government, Justice Swain preferred to give an additional period of time to reach an agreement between the Council and the Puerto Rican authorities.

Swain said so Puerto Rico is the closest to debt restructuring and ensuring payments for “the long term” and stated that the PDA has significant benefits for Puerto Rico.

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I’ll be honest, my patience is running out

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“I’ll be honest, my patience is running out,” said the judge, opening the emergency hearing she had called for firsthand details of the barrier that had arisen in the Puerto Rican legislature to approve House Bill 1003, which contemplates PDA law. .

Hours before the session, the legislative and conservative leadership announced an agreement allowing the Senate and the House of Representatives to ratify the amendment plan negotiated by the House.

Given the lack of votes last week in the Senate to ratify the agreement and the uncertainty this has caused, the House has asked to postpone the start of the hearings to confirm the plan, which are scheduled for November 8.

The Board through its Executive Director Natalie Jarisko His attorney, Martin Bennenstock, indicated at today’s hearing that if the start of confirmation hearings was not postponed, they would request that the debt settlement plan be dismissed.

For Jaresko, the language that the Puerto Rican government that it wants to vote on tomorrow has agreed to in the Puerto Rican legislature will not be approved by the House, mainly because it is setting aside a pension freeze.

By making space for the mediation process, Judge Swain asked the board to wait for those conversations and not file a petition to deny the PDA, which at this time requires approval from the Puerto Rican legislature.

Ahead of today’s session, four of the five groups of bondholders that have agreed with the board to renegotiate the central government’s debt, warned the directors of that body on Sunday that if they did not stick to the “generous” period they were given to confirm the central government’s PDA, They will have no alternative but to exercise their rights, including the possibility of requesting a rejection of the bankruptcy process in court.

Lawyer Beninstock, on behalf of the House, defended the language ratified by the House of Representatives, which asserts that there will be no reductions in the monthly payments of state pensions and a halt to their increase due to inflation. “We need unambiguous legislation,” Bennenstock said.

Brian Rosen, who is also an attorney for the board of directors, noted that the amendment plan requires legislative approval no later than December 15, but that the financial entity has the ability to unilaterally postpone that date until January 31.

Retrieve the minute by minute display:

for this part, john rapisardi, the governor’s legal representative and attorney for O’Melveny & Myers, called for the process to be allowed to continue, given the agreement announced in the last hours by the legislative leadership and executive branch of Puerto Rico.

For Rapisardi, before ordering a change to the scheduling of ratification confirmation hearings, the court must wait for Puerto Rico’s two legislative chambers to approve a new measure and for it to be reviewed by the Board of Directors.

Referring to American football, Rapisardi said, “We’re on one line, we can’t lose the ball.”

“By the end of tomorrow, we could have the legislation we need to pass the Senate and the House of Representatives. And I will probably sign,” Governor Pierluisi said, signing his lawyer’s expressions.

Pierluisi urged the judge not to allow a line to be thrown into the sand at this time to prevent the process from progressing.

In an interview with new day Before the court session, the President of the Senate, Jose Luis DalmauThe upper house said will session Tuesday from 1:00 pm to consider the consensus language reached by the leadership of the Puerto Rican government.

Luis Vega RamosThe Senate President’s advisor, warned the court that they were on their way to agreeing to a consensual agreement to lead the Puerto Rican government.

But he said it should be clear that House Bill 1003 passed by the House will not get the Senate’s votes. “It is not possible for this report to be approved,” he said, asking the judge to provide space to continue the legislative process, after an agreement was reached between the People’s Democratic Party and the New Progressive Party. Which has a clear majority in both houses.

For his part, the Speaker of Parliament said, Rafael “Tatito” Hernandez MontañezAdmittedly, the new language that motivates the government’s leadership will be approved tomorrow. “What the agreement does is to clarify what was approved in the House of Representatives,” he said.

Lawyer of the Sharia Debt Coalition, Kirpalani SushiFor his part, he opposed the council’s proposal to postpone the hearing.

“The deadlines are there because they work,” Kirpalani said, criticizing that the council wants to lobby, referring to “hypothetical scenarios,” referring to the penalties the Puerto Rican government could face if an agreement is not reached.

The legitimate debt consortium was – as of mid-July – made up of investment firms Goldn Tree Asses Management, Whitebox Advisors LLC, Monarch Alternative Capital LP, Taconic Capital Advisors LP, Aristeia Capital, LLC, Farmstead Capital Management, LLC and Foundation Credit, who own approximately of $2.6 billion in Puerto Rican bonds.