Puerto Rico package draws criticism
Some in Central Fla. say Trump aid too little, too late
President Donald Trump announced $13 billion in FEMA money for Puerto Rico’s three-year recovery from Hurricane Maria on Friday, but the move was criticized by some Central Florida Puerto Ricans as being too late and pandering before the election.
The announcement also comes days after Trump’s
Democratic opponent Joe Biden put out his plan for Puerto Rico at an event in Kissimmee, prompting an activist to say the action was politically motivated.
The White House said the $13 billion would include $9.6 billion in federal funding to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical grid, allowing the island “to repair and replace thousands of miles of transmission and distribution lines, electrical substations, power generation systems, office buildings, and make other grid improvements.”
It also includes $2 billion to spur the recovery of the education system, adding it would “focus on restoring school buildings and educational facilities across the island.”
Maria struck Puerto Rico three years ago on Sept. 20, 2017, with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, leading to 2,975 deaths and $91 billion in damages.
But the money is just part of the more than $40 billion originally allocated for Puerto Rico by Congress in 2018, most of which had gone unspent. U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, said the funds should have been available long ago.
“A genuine question for the Trump administration: where have you been the last three years for Puerto Rico?” said Soto in a statement. “He has spent all this time blocking over half the [funding] Congress allocated for disaster relief, treating Americans in Puerto Rico like second-class citizens, and acting like they should be grateful to get any help at all.”
Soto is the lone congress member of Puerto Rican descent from Florida.
Trump was criticized in 2019 for repeatedly falsely inflating the amount of federal disaster Puerto Rico had received since Hurricane Maria struck, saying “Puerto Rico has been given more money by Congress for Hurricane Disaster Relief, 91 Billion Dollars, than any State in the history of the U.S.”
At the time, $40.7 billion had been allocated by Congress, not $91 billion, and only $11.2 billion had been spent.
“People have been suffering for so long and it’s an obscenity, 40 days before the election, to then discover Puerto Rico,” said Jimmy Torres Velez, president of the Puerto Rican Action Initiative. “Now, because the people are ready to go out and vote, they try to create a new reality for the people. And, for me, it’s really offensive that they do
something like that.”
In a press conference Friday, Trump said, “I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to Puerto Rico.”
As for why the announcement was made now, “What we’re doing is we’ve been working on it for a long time,” Trump said.
Trump’s relationship with the Puerto Rican community on the island and in Florida has been strained by the president’s statements since Maria, including denying the official death toll for the island of 2,975, saying he was an “absolute no” on island statehood, and reportedly calling Puerto Ricans “dirty” in asking whether the island could be traded for Greenland.
Biden’s Puerto Rico plan announced Tuesday would create a federal working group to report directly to the president, rework the unpopular Financial Oversight and Management Board that controls much of the is
land’s economy, forgive disaster relief loans, strengthen the island’s damaged power system and improve health care.
Polls in Florida show the state in a dead heat between Biden and Trump, though there is a major split as to whether Biden is underperforming with Hispanic voters or whether he’s equaling Hillary Clinton’s advantage with Hispanics in 2016.
Earlier Friday, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also waded into Puerto Rico issues by saying statehood for the island and Washington, D.C., would mean “four new Democratic senators in perpetuity.”
The island’s governor and congressional delegate are Republicans, and GOP U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida supports Puerto Rican statehood.