Title 48Territories and Insular PossessionsRelease 119-73

§2141 Approval of Fiscal Plans

Title 48 › Chapter CHAPTER 20— - PUERTO RICO OVERSIGHT, MANAGEMENT, AND ECONOMIC STABILITY › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER II— - RESPONSIBILITIES OF OVERSIGHT BOARD › § 2141

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Oversight Board must, once its members are chosen and each year after, give the Governor a schedule for making, sending, approving, and certifying Fiscal Plans. The Board will talk with the Governor about the schedule, but the Board alone can set or change the dates if it thinks that is needed and practical. A Fiscal Plan must show how the territory or a government agency will get to sound finances and keep access to credit. It must include estimates of revenues and spending using agreed accounting rules and based on current laws or specific bills needed to meet the plan’s numbers. The plan must fund essential public services and public pensions, eliminate structural deficits, and—when no stay under subchapters III or IV is in effect—ensure the debt load is sustainable. It must improve financial management and controls, set and enable fiscal targets, include independent revenue forecasts and a debt sustainability review, and provide for capital spending that supports growth. The plan must follow the Board’s recommendations, include any other information the Board needs, prevent an agency’s assets from being used to benefit the territory or another agency unless allowed by the territory’s constitution, an approved plan of adjustment, or a Qualifying Modification, and respect lawful priorities or liens in place before June 30, 2016. The Board decides how many years the plan covers, but it must cover at least 5 fiscal years from the year it is certified. The Governor cannot send a Territory Budget to the Legislature for a year unless the Board has certified that year’s Fiscal Plan, unless the Board waives that rule. The Governor must send proposed plans on the Board’s schedule. The Board will approve a plan that meets these rules or send a notice of problems with recommendations and a chance to fix them. If the Governor fails to produce an acceptable plan on time, the Board will make and submit a plan, which will be treated as approved by the Governor and certified to the Governor and Legislature. If the Governor and Board jointly make and certify a plan, that plan governs.

Full Legal Text

Title 48, §2141

Territories and Insular Possessions — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)As soon as practicable after all of the members and the Chair have been appointed to the Oversight Board in accordance with section 2121(e) of this title in the fiscal year in which the Oversight Board is established, and in each fiscal year thereafter during which the Oversight Board is in operation, the Oversight Board shall deliver a notice to the Governor providing a schedule for the process of development, submission, approval, and certification of Fiscal Plans. The notice may also set forth a schedule for revisions to any Fiscal Plan that has already been certified, which revisions must be subject to subsequent approval and certification by the Oversight Board. The Oversight Board shall consult with the Governor in establishing a schedule, but the Oversight Board shall retain sole discretion to set or, by delivery of a subsequent notice to the Governor, change the dates of such schedule as it deems appropriate and reasonably feasible.
(b)(1)A Fiscal Plan developed under this section shall, with respect to the territorial government or covered territorial instrumentality, provide a method to achieve fiscal responsibility and access to the capital markets, and—
(A)provide for estimates of revenues and expenditures in conformance with agreed accounting standards and be based on—
(i)applicable laws; or
(ii)specific bills that require enactment in order to reasonably achieve the projections of the Fiscal Plan;
(B)ensure the funding of essential public services;
(C)provide adequate funding for public pension systems;
(D)provide for the elimination of structural deficits;
(E)for fiscal years covered by a Fiscal Plan in which a stay under subchapters III or IV is not effective, provide for a debt burden that is sustainable;
(F)improve fiscal governance, accountability, and internal controls;
(G)enable the achievement of fiscal targets;
(H)create independent forecasts of revenue for the period covered by the Fiscal Plan;
(I)include a debt sustainability analysis;
(J)provide for capital expenditures and investments necessary to promote economic growth;
(K)adopt appropriate recommendations submitted by the Oversight Board under section 2145(a) of this title;
(L)include such additional information as the Oversight Board deems necessary;
(M)ensure that assets, funds, or resources of a territorial instrumentality are not loaned to, transferred to, or otherwise used for the benefit of a covered territory or another covered territorial instrumentality of a covered territory, unless permitted by the constitution of the territory, an approved plan of adjustment under subchapter III, or a Qualifying Modification approved under subchater VI; and
(N)respect the relative lawful priorities or lawful liens, as may be applicable, in the constitution, other laws, or agreements of a covered territory or covered territorial instrumentality in effect prior to June 30, 2016.
(2)A Fiscal Plan developed under this section shall cover a period of fiscal years as determined by the Oversight Board in its sole discretion but in any case a period of not less than 5 fiscal years from the fiscal year in which it is certified by the Oversight Board.
(c)(1)The Governor may not submit to the Legislature a Territory Budget under section 2142 of this title for a fiscal year unless the Oversight Board has certified the Territory Fiscal Plan for that fiscal year in accordance with this subsection, unless the Oversight Board in its sole discretion waives this requirement.
(2)The Governor shall submit to the Oversight Board any proposed Fiscal Plan required by the Oversight Board by the time specified in the notice delivered under subsection (a).
(3)The Oversight Board shall review any proposed Fiscal Plan to determine whether it satisfies the requirements set forth in subsection (b) and, if the Oversight Board determines in its sole discretion that the proposed Fiscal Plan—
(A)satisfies such requirements, the Oversight Board shall approve the proposed Fiscal Plan; or
(B)does not satisfy such requirements, the Oversight Board shall provide to the Governor—
(i)a notice of violation that includes recommendations for revisions to the applicable Fiscal Plan; and
(ii)an opportunity to correct the violation in accordance with subsection (d)(1).
(d)(1)If the Governor receives a notice of violation under subsection (c)(3), the Governor shall submit to the Oversight Board a revised proposed Fiscal Plan in accordance with subsection (b) by the time specified in the notice delivered under subsection (a). The Governor may submit as many revised Fiscal Plans to the Oversight Board as the schedule established in the notice delivered under subsection (a) permits.
(2)If the Governor fails to submit to the Oversight Board a Fiscal Plan that the Oversight Board determines in its sole discretion satisfies the requirements set forth in subsection (b) by the time specified in the notice delivered under subsection (a), the Oversight Board shall develop and submit to the Governor and the Legislature a Fiscal Plan that satisfies the requirements set forth in subsection (b).
(e)(1)If the Oversight Board approves a Fiscal Plan under subsection (c)(3), it shall deliver a compliance certification for such Fiscal Plan to the Governor and the Legislature.
(2)If the Oversight Board develops a Fiscal Plan under subsection (d)(2), such Fiscal Plan shall be deemed approved by the Governor, and the Oversight Board shall issue a compliance certification for such Fiscal Plan to the Governor and the Legislature.
(f)Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, if the Governor and the Oversight Board jointly develop a Fiscal Plan for the fiscal year that meets the requirements under this section, and that the Governor and the Oversight Board certify that the fiscal plan 11 So in original. Probably should be “Fiscal Plan”. reflects a consensus between the Governor and the Oversight Board, then such Fiscal Plan shall serve as the Fiscal Plan for the territory or territorial instrumentality for that fiscal year.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

Subchapter IV, referred to in subsec. (b)(1)(E), was in the original a reference to title IV, meaning title IV of Pub. L. 114–187, June 30, 2016, 130 Stat. 585, which is classified principally to subchapter IV of this chapter. For complete classification of title IV to the Code, see Tables.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

48 U.S.C. § 2141

Title 48Territories and Insular Possessions

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73