mr. serrano. the chair: the gentleman from new york is recognized for three minutes. mr. serrano: i thank the gentleman. when we started these negotiations with both sides wanting to do something with both leaderships in the house, wanting to do something, i knew at the end of the day, i would be voting for a bill. i knew i had to do that for very simple reasons. inactivity, inaction was not an option. the only option was to do a bill. what that bill would look like was my question. what that bill would look like was my challenge and my dilemma. the bill changed. the original bill had some provisions that no one could defend on either side, but we have made a bill now that does have some hard pills to swallow, but over $70 billion in debt with no signs of being able to pay is even more of a bitter pill to swallow. the territory is hurting. the people are hurting. in fact, if anything comes out of this that is positive is the fact that the u.s. congress is paying attention to puerto rico in a way t

mr. serrano.he chair: the gentleman from new york is recognized for three minutes. mr. serrano: i thank the gentleman. when we started these negotiations with both sides wanting to do something with both leaderships in the house, wanting to do something, i knew at the end of the day, i would be voting for a bill. i knew i had to do that for very simple reasons. inactivity, inaction was not an option. the only option was to do a bill. what that bill would look like was my question. what that bill would look like was my challenge and my dilemma. the bill changed. the original bill had some provisions that no one could defend on either side, but we have made a bill now that does have some hard pills to swallow, but over $70 billion in debt with no signs of being able to pay is even more of a bitter pill to swallow. the territory is hurting. the people are hurting. in fact, if anything comes out of this that is positive is the fact that the u.s. congress is paying attention to puerto rico in a way tha

mr. serrano: i wish you could see yourselves. i wish, i don't want you to turn away, because then you won't see me, i wish you could see america in front of us. we're not only america today, we're also america in the fact that we represent the people. over 9 to% who want this bill -- 90% who want this bill to be voted on. we are not in a vacuum. when i look at you, when i look at myself as part of you, i realize that the real representative of what this country is. the people who created this country did not have microphones, but their voice was heard throughout the world. they did not have tv cameras. still they created is imitated today. they continued their fight without a microphone, without a blogger, without anything else. but i know one thing for sure. what is being said here today, what is being looked at today, what we are photographing today will be heard throughout the country and throughout the world for as long as people can remember. because in my 42 years in my office, i've seen people come together, but i've never