Adding on to the commonwealth’s financial crisis, Puerto Rico has now been sued for failing to repay creditors.

Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla announced Wall Street insurers have sued the island. News of the lawsuit is not necessarily new, as Garcia Padilla previously expected it due to the lack of a legal framework from the U.S. Congress to help solve its debt crisis.

Who's Suing Puerto Rico?

Bond insurance subsidiaries of Assured Guaranty Ltd. announced it has filed a lawsuit to protect certain income rights and the constitutionality of the commonwealth's "revenue clawback."

"The Commonwealth has not satisfied the preconditions to the clawback and is disregarding the priorities of its own Constitution and the rule of the law," said Assured Guaranty President and Chief Executive Officer Dominic Frederico in a statement released on Thursday. "This confiscation of revenues pledged to bondholders is illegal. We encourage the Commonwealth to instead focus on measures that build market credibility and develop specific fiscal plans to address its critical issues, including revenue collection."

"These actions stand in contrast to the consensual agreement that we and other creditors recently reached with Puerto Rico's electric utility, PREPA. That agreement provides for the reform and efficient recapitalization of PREPA. Assured Guaranty continues to stand ready to work constructively with Puerto Rico in a consensual way, in keeping with our long term support of the island," added s Frederico added.

Puerto Rico Responds

On Friday morning, Garcia Padilla responded to the lawsuit. The governor said the lawsuit will develop all while there is still no legal framework to respond to Assured Guaranty President 's litigation.

"The most dismaying part is that Congress could have easily prevented the coming litigation pandemonium at no cost to the U.S. taxpayers. But, in answering to Wall Street lobbyists, Congress has ignored Puerto Rico's crisis and instead allowed the Island's 3.5 million American citizens and their creditors enter into chaos," said Garcia Padilla.

Garcia Padilla and other officials had hoped Congress would have provided language into the recent omnibus spending bill to give Puerto Rico the tools to handle its debt; this includes the same Chapter 9 bankruptcy rights given to all U.S. states. Although the omnibus bill did include language addressing the island's health crisis, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., has instead referred to relevant House committees to "come up with a responsible solution" for the island's debt during the 2016 first quarter.

Referring to the island's debt crisis as a humanitarian crisis, Garcia Padilla said Congress can still act by enacting the Puerto Rico Emergency Financial Stability Act of 2015 (H.R. 4290), introduced by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and supported by Congressional Hispanic Caucus members Luis Gutierrez of Illinois and New York's Jose Serrano and Nydia Velasquez.

Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wisc., also introduced legislation (H.R. 4199) that would give Puerto Rico the choice on debt restructuring. Both Democratic and Republican bills have been referred to other House committees.

"Swift action from our congressional leaders is necessary and what the people of Puerto Rico deserve," said Garcia Padilla.

As Latin Post reported, Puerto Rico's debt has climbed to over $70 billion.

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Politics Editor Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.