In 2017, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and caused 90 billion in damage not even counting the death toll. The US (Trump administration) at the time organized a package of 20 billion dollars in aid. However, only 0.07% of that money (138 million) was actually spent due to Trump’s extensive restrictions on how the money was to be spent.Trump put these restrictions on the aid funds because he claimed that the Puerto Rican government was corrupt and would misuse the money. In fact, right before Trump was to leave office, his administration set another list of restrictions on another 4.9 billion meant for Puerto Rico’s repairs.
Biden plans to remove Trump’s restrictions as well as distribute another 1.3 billion dollars to prevent future catastrophe.
First, in a joint movement between the US’s department of Urban Housing and Development and Puerto Rico’s housing agency, the two bodies successfully moved the 1.3 billion allocated by congress to safeguard against future storms.
Secondly, with more power in congress and in the executive branch, Biden was also able to quickly dispatch Trump’s last wishes to add more restriction to the Puerto Rico aid relief. One of Biden’s officials claims that this motion is an attempt to reset the relationship between Puerto Rico and the US that Trump had damaged.
3 comments:
It is unfortunate that former president Trump put such extreme limitations on how the money for aid to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. These restrictions seem to be more so out of a preference for isolationism or laziness than actual concern for corruption as the United States could have made an effort to monitor the use of the money to ensure that it was properly utilized for recovery from the Hurricane rather than for other means. The joint operation between the United States Department of Urban Housing and Development as well as the housing agency of Puerto Rico seems to allow for better insurance that the foreign aid is used for actual relief purposes rather than given away in a corrupt manner.
I agree with Ian. It’s discouraging to see critical funds to rebuild Puerto Rico’s infrastructure being put on pause in the wake of such a devastating crisis, due to the Trump administration’s seemingly politically based claims of possible “mismanagement” and “corruption” (NYT). It’s been a few years since Hurricane Maria struck, and observing Puerto Rico’s current gradual progress towards recovery, one might wonder why the Trump administration made the process for Puerto Rico to obtain aid increasingly difficult, furthering restrictions even on Inauguration Day. I’m hopeful of the Biden administration’s recent efforts to begin dismantling this inequity.
As climate change continues to gain traction, it’s important for Puerto Rico to receive funds to build towards protection against future disasters like that of Hurricane Maria.
I really like the point Kaitlyn made about why there's an increasing difficulty in processing these funds to Puerto Rico when Hurricane Maria hit back in 2017. Trump's claims on Puerto Rico's corruption allowed the endless list of restrictions on the funds. Despite Trump's suspicion of corruption in Puerto Rico, I don't think it is just for him to in a way "punish" the Puerto Rican government by limiting the findings, harming innocents, and slowing down their recovery.
There is a possibility of future climate disasters hitting the US and other territories. I hope that if another of these situation does happen, the Biden administration will be able to and reasonably ration funds for these area's reconstruction.
Post a Comment