Obama vows to move quickly to sign Puerto Rico bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Puerto Rico faces a major debt payment, President Barack Obama is vowing to move quickly to sign a last-minute rescue package for the financially-strapped U.S. territory and its 3.5 million Americans.

Signs are already pointing to a humanitarian crisis as thousands have fled the island and businesses there have closed, schools have struggled with limited electricity and hospitals have asked for cash payment in advance for some medication.

Utah Rep. Rob Bishop, the Republican chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, spent the next several months writing the bill under intense pressure from bondholders worried their investments would be lost, as well as Democrats and Obama administration officials who pushed to make sure that Puerto Ricans' underfunded pensions were also a priority.

Lew urged senators to vote for the bill even though it isn't perfect, saying that if the island defaults, the government may be forced to shut public transit, close a hospital or send police officers home.

"In my view we need austerity not for the people of Puerto Rico, but for the billionaire Wall Street hedge fund managers who have exacerbated the crisis on the island," Sanders said on the floor.