Puerto Rico needs debt restructuring authority under U.S. bankruptcy law to address what the Obama Administration has previously called an “escalating crisis”, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, said on Fox Business Network TV on Thursday. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker, Republican Paul Ryan, has instructed committees to work with Puerto Rico’s government to come up with a solution to the island’s financial problems and said this should be crafted by the end of March. Puerto Rico has some $70 billion in debt, a poverty rate of 45 percent, and has been in recession for nearly a decade.