(Bloomberg) -- Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives early Friday voted down an amendment to the current operating budget that would allocate billions of dollars to investors as part of the island’s debt-cutting plan.

The legislation failed after midnight local time on Friday by 25 to 21, one vote short of passage, according to El Nuevo Dia and El Vocero. Still, Puerto Rico’s financial oversight board has the ability to allocate the necessary funds itself, Rafael ‘Tatito’ Hernandez, speaker of the House, said in a statement Friday. The chamber will take up the issue again on Tuesday, he said.

The commonwealth’s current budget must be revised to incorporate debt-service payments and also allocate $10.8 billion in cash payments to bondholders, insurance companies, and public workers. It’s part of Puerto Rico’s debt-restructuring plan, which will cut $18.8 billion of commonwealth-backed bonds down to $7.4 billion. 

Puerto Rico hasn’t paid bondholders since 2016. While the bulk of the allocations in the bill go to investors, the budget revisions also direct money to public workers, as stipulated in the debt-adjustment plan. The bill would allocate $1.4 billion to create a new pension-reserve trust as the existing retirement fund is broke.

Puerto Rico officials are seeking to execute the debt restructuring through a bond swap by March 15.

The legislature signaled its approval of the debt-restructuring plan when it passed a bond bill in October that allows Puerto Rico to sell new securities to replace existing debt.

U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain last month approved the debt-restructuring plan. That allows Puerto Rico to begin exiting bankruptcy, a process that began in May 2017 after years of economic decline, borrowing to cover budget deficits and population loss.

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