New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who is arguably becoming one of the nation’s most influential Puerto Rican politicians, is urging Congress and the Obama administration to step in and help the island commonwealth struggling under the weight of its debt.

Mark-Viverito, who was born in Puerto Rico, said Wednesday that the situation in her native land was “a fiscal crisis” that required help from the superpower that sits 1,000 miles from its shores.