Officials in Puerto Rico are turning to Washington, D.C., for help in solving its staggering debt crisis.

According to Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla, the U.S. commonwealth is in more than $72 billion in debt, which it cannot pay back.  As a result, the Caribbean island is calling on U.S. lawmakers to pass a bill that would extend bankruptcy protection.

Puerto Rico's debt crisis began back in 2000, when it jumped from 60 percent of gross domestic product to over 100 percent.

"Investors loved the tax-exempt bonds Puerto Rico sold to finance its deficits, and banks loved the fat fees. Except that as Puerto Rico's fiscal fortunes continued to fall, the price it had to pay to keep borrowing kept going up," reports The Sun-Sentinel.

Next week, top financial officials in the U.S. territory plan to meet in New York with Puerto Rico's creditors. Officials also plan to petition Congress to approve legislation that would allow creditors to provide it with bankruptcy protection.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal has proposed a bill that would fix an oversight in a 1984 bankruptcy code bill that did not include Puerto Rico. Blumenthal, however, says that both his bill and a similar one in the House would be a good fix.

"This bill would essentially enable a town or city or a public corporation, like the electric utility, to use in Chapter 9 in an orderly workout of debt," said Blumenthal, according to NPR.

Republicans, on the other hand, say the bill is essentially a bailout. In response, Blumenthal argues that there're no bailouts, federal money or federal cost involved in his proposal.