Article V defines the judicial branch as headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, currently Maite Oronoz Rodríguez.

The federal government of the United States has enumerated powers, including monetary policy, foreign relations, and defense.

The local government of Puerto Rico has reserved powers, including education, law enforcement, and elections.

On June 4, 1951, the Puerto Ricans voted to hold a constitutional convention in a referendum, and elected delegates on August 27, 1951.

The official residence of the governor is La Fortaleza, the oldest executive mansion in continuous use in the Western Hemisphere.

The Governor has the authority to nominate agency heads, trial and appellate judges, as well as Supreme Court justices and directors of public corporations, although these must be confirmed by the Senate and, in a handful of cases, the House, as well.

The Constitution and Puerto Rican law establishes a governmental line of succession for special cases when neither the Governor nor the Secretary are available.

The day-to-day enforcement and administration of laws is delegated by the Governor to 16 executive departments created by the Constitution or by statute to deal with specific areas of government.

Puerto Rico has also established several government-owned corporations in order to provide basic and public services to its citizens, including electricity, water, transportation, and education, among others.

In recent years, two referendums have been held to propose constitutional changes to substantially modify the composition of the Legislative Assembly.

Various organizations pushed for changing the legislative assembly from the current two-chamber system (House and Senate) prevalent in 49 of the 50 states of the nation to one-chamber (unicameralism).

[7] Lacking the two-thirds majority necessary in both houses of the Legislature to submit constitutional amendments to the electorate, in 2004 the Popular Democratic Party's then-majority approved legislation to hold a referendum, not on a particular constitutional amendment as such, but on the general concept of switching from a bicameral to a unicameral system which was held on July 10, 2005.

Attended by less than 25% of the islands' electorate, Puerto Rican voters approved the change to a unicameral legislature by 456,267 votes in favor, versus 88,720 against.

)[9] Almost four years later, incoming Governor Luis Fortuño (from the New Progressive Party or New Party of Progress (NPP)) discarded the alternative of unicameralism claiming that the NPP's platform, rather than advocating unicameralism, supported submitting to the people a constitutional amendment proposing a substantial reduction in seats in the existing bicameral legislature.

The largest government-owned corporation, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), generates almost half of those revenues alone ($3 billion).

[15] The central government's main source of revenue is income tax imposed on individual citizens and private companies, which can amount to approximately $5.5 billion.

[12] Other significant sources of revenue include excise taxes on imports, cigarettes, liquor, hotel rooms, cement, and vehicles ($2 billion);[12] and lotteries ($870 million).

[18] The situation reached a turning point when the executive branch of the government was partially shutdown, the events now known as the 2006 Puerto Rico budget crisis.

[19] In May 2007, local economists expressed serious concerns when it was revealed that the Puerto Rico public debt equaled to 76% of its gross national product (GNP), making it one of the most indebted countries by percentage in the world, even more than the United States.

[20][needs update] Economists have criticized the government's fiscal policy, whose level of expenditures and indebtedness has increased significantly within the past decade while the economy was grown at a much slower pace.

[20] By early 2017, the Puerto Rican government-debt crisis posed serious problems for the government which was saddled with outstanding bond debt that had climbed to $70 billion or $12,000 per capita[21] at a time with a 45 percent poverty rate and 12.4% unemployment that is more than twice the mainland U.S.

With debt payments due, the Governor was facing the risk of a government shutdown and failure to fund the managed care health system.

[24][25] "Without action before April, Puerto Rico’s ability to execute contracts for Fiscal Year 2018 with its managed care organizations will be threatened, thereby putting at risk beginning July 1, 2017 the health care of up to 900,000 poor U.S. citizens living in Puerto Rico", according to a letter sent to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

They also said that "Congress must enact measures recommended by both Republicans and Democrats that fix Puerto Rico’s inequitable health care financing structure and promote sustained economic growth.

"[25] Initially, the oversight board created under PROMESA called for Puerto Rico's governor Ricardo Rosselló to deliver a fiscal turnaround plan by January 28.

Just before that deadline, the control board gave the Commonwealth government until February 28 to present a fiscal plan (including negotiations with creditors for restructuring debt) to solve the problems.