A response to your petition on Puerto Rico:

Thank you for your participation on the We the People petition platform.

Puerto Rico faces a difficult set of fiscal and economic challenges -- challenges that did not develop

overnight and will not be solved overnight.

Over the past two years, Governor Garcia Padilla and the Puerto Rican legislature have implemented

meaningful and important measures to raise new revenues and reduce spending, although more work

still lies ahead to manage the Commonwealth's fiscal outlook and to lay out a sustainable path forward

for the people of Puerto Rico.

The Administration wants Puerto Rico to succeed in its efforts and continues to support Puerto Rico's

economic development needs, and will ensure the Commonwealth has access to all available and

existing federal resources.

As to the specific request raised in your petition, consistent with the terms we laid out when we began

We the People, our responses to petitions will not address matters under the purview of state or local

law -- in this case, Puerto Rico's constitution.