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House announces approval of Joint Resolution 665 to redirect nearly $1 billion in surplus
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Summary
An unidentified House speaker said the chamber approved Joint Resolution 665 to amend the current budget, citing about $860 million in current-year surplus and $132 million from the prior year and outlining allocations for economic development, municipal funds, PREPA recovery, Medicaid match and CAPEX; the House plans a final vote on June 28 after expected notice from the oversight board.
Unidentified Speaker 1 said the House approved Joint Resolution 665 to amend the current budget and allocate roughly $993 million in available surplus across a range of priorities.
The speaker told the chamber, "Hoy la cámara de representantes demuestra con acciones" and announced what he called two actions demonstrating fiscal discipline, listing a current-year surplus of 860 million dollars and an additional 132 million from the previous year to be redirected by the measure.
The measure, the speaker said, directs specific sums to multiple uses: 34.3 million for economic development incentives; 14.8 million to the municipal improvements fund; 36.2 million tied to IVU collections to pay providers; 3.4 million to the solid-waste fund negotiated as part of debt restructuring under la ley 53; 1.6 million in matching funds to draw federal dollars for the distilled-spirits industry; 150 million to PREPA recovery; 130 million to replenish a recovery fund; 4 million for severance for outgoing government employees; 150 million to address current accounts; 150 million for Medicaid matching to health care; 105 million to cover FEMA matching costs for committed projects; 77.5 million for CAPEX infrastructure projects; and 3.3 million for ASMI.
Speaker 1 summarized those amounts as "novecientos noventa y tres millones de dólares" when added together. He described many allocations as subject to statutory rules, vigencia windows and matching constraints that limit immediate spending in some cases, and said some sums are reserve funds to be used only if necessary.
On procedure, the speaker said the House "concurred with the Senate's version" as a process step and cautioned that this is not the final text. He said the oversight board will likely notify that the House substitute does not comply with the fiscal plan; the House intends to file a clean amendment and aim to approve a final, revised budget on June 28. "Nuestra expectativa es que el veintiocho vamos a llegar bien temprano," he said, and indicated sessions on June 23–25 would be lengthy to finish agenda work ahead of that date.
Unidentified Speaker 2 asked where notable differences remain between the board, the executive and the legislature. Speaker 1 responded that the House's version is largely aligned ("el noventa y nueve punto nueve por ciento del presupuesto está alineado") but that the Senate introduced changes the board does not support. The speaker emphasized that some requirements for declaring a budget "balanced" depend on actions or reforms outside the chamber's direct authority.
The transcript did not record a formal roll-call vote or vote totals for Resolution 665 in this exchange; the speaker characterized the action as approved by the House and described next procedural steps, including anticipated notice from the oversight board and a planned amendment filing.
The House also indicated a separate pension inflation adjustment measure will be included in the final voting. The speaker framed these steps as part of a legacy of fiscal discipline as the legislature approaches the end of its four-year term.
The House's statements and allocations were procedural and financial in nature; the oversight board's formal response and any final, signed-by-the-governor budget were described as pending.
