PROMESA (2016): The Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act

On June 30, 2016, President Barack Obama signed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) into law. The law created a Fiscal Oversight and Management Board (FOMB) with sweeping powers over Puerto Rico's finances — effectively a colonial receivership that overrides elected officials.

The Board:
- 7 members, none elected by Puerto Rican voters
- Appointed through a process involving the President and congressional leaders
- Puerto Rico's Governor sits on the Board ex officio but does not vote
- Board members serve 3-year terms and can be reappointed
- The Board has final authority over Puerto Rico's budget, fiscal plans, and financial decisions

Powers:
1. Budget Authority: The Board must approve all government budgets. If it rejects a budget, it can impose its own.
2. Fiscal Plan: The Board develops and certifies a fiscal plan that the government must follow.
3. Debt Restructuring (Title III): PROMESA created a modified bankruptcy process for Puerto Rico (previously, territories could not declare bankruptcy under Chapter 9).
4. Labor Modifications (Title IV): The Board can modify labor standards, including minimum wage for young workers.
5. Spending Override: The Board can reject appropriations made by Puerto Rico's legislature.
6. Litigation Control: The Board can direct litigation strategy in debt cases.

What PROMESA Means:

The fiscal control board represents the most explicit exercise of colonial power over Puerto Rico since the Foraker Act:
- An unelected body with the power to override every financial decision of the elected government
- Board members who are not accountable to Puerto Rican voters
- The power to impose austerity: cutting pensions, closing schools, reducing healthcare spending, privatizing public services
- No democratic check on the Board's authority from within Puerto Rico

Austerity Record:
Under the Board's fiscal plans:
- Over 300 public schools have been closed
- The University of Puerto Rico's budget has been cut by hundreds of millions
- Public employee pensions have been cut
- Government agencies have been consolidated or eliminated
- Public services have been reduced
- The retirement age has been raised

Legal Challenge: Puerto Rico challenged the Board's constitutionality in Aurelius Investment v. Commonwealth (2020). The Supreme Court ruled that Board members are not 'Officers of the United States' under the Appointments Clause — essentially finding that the colonial territory has fewer constitutional protections than a state would have.

The Name: 'PROMESA' means 'promise' in Spanish — a bitter irony for a law that imposed unelected authority over the Puerto Rican people. The naming was deliberate: colonialism often names its tools of control in the language of the colonized, framing subjugation as assistance.