UPDATE 1-U.S., Puerto Rican leaders vow centralized effort for island

(Updates with quotes from conference)
By Nick Brown
ORLANDO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Civic and political leaders from
Puerto Rico and the United States met on Wednesday in Florida,
forming a coalition to pressure the federal government to help
the U.S. commonwealth resolve its $72 billion debt crisis.
The coalition will lobby for a bill to give Puerto Rico the
same bankruptcy protections as U.S. states, and will also
advocate for equal Medicare and Medicaid benefits for the
island, members said at the conference in Orlando.
"We're going to be in the face of everyone, whether it's
White House, (Treasury) Secretary (Jack) Lew, or presidential
candidates," U.S. Representative Nydia Velazquez, a New York
Democrat, told a crowd of about 250 civic leaders and Hispanic
group advocates, who stood, cheered, danced, and waved Puerto
Rican flags.
Specific action items will be announced soon, Velazquez
added.
Speaking to Reuters outside the conference, Velazquez and
fellow Democratic Representative Luis Gutierrez of Illinois said
they had so far received a cold shoulder from the U.S. Treasury
Department for their efforts to form a federal task force to
help Puerto Rico resolve its crisis.
However, the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that
Treasury is considering administering a debt exchange through a
so-called "superbond."
The conference also gave politicians a chance to score
points with Hispanic voters in Florida, a key political
battleground and home to more than 1 million Puerto Ricans.
Among those in attendance were U.S. Representative Alan Grayson,
a Florida Democrat running for U.S. Senate in 2016.
While much of the national debate on Puerto Rico has
centered on finances and economics, with some advocating for a
debt restructuring and others calling on Puerto Rico's
government to impose spending reforms, politicians at the
conference invoked themes of immigration, connecting with the
crowd on deeper cultural and emotional levels.
Gutierrez drew applause when he relayed a story of racial
profiling whereby he was denied entry to the U.S. Capitol by a
guard who did not believe he was a member of Congress. U.S.
Representative Brendan Boyle, a Pennsylvania Democrat, received
an ovation when he criticized "anti-immigration nonsense" that
he believes has been the cause of unfair treatment for Puerto
Ricans.