Miami Herald

Releasing Maria relief for Puerto Rico is a ‘priority,’ White House says

- BY SYRA ORTIZ-BLANES AND ALEX ROARTY sortizblan­es@elnuevoher­ald.com aroarty@mcclatchyd­c.com Syra Ortiz-Blanes: @syraortizb Alex Roarty: 202-383-6173, @Alex_Roarty

The Biden administra­tion is working to release hurricane disaster aid that had been withheld for Puerto Rico by the Trump administra­tion, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.

Psaki, speaking during her news briefing, said the president has made it a “priority” to release the Hurricane Maria-related funding.

“We are working to do so,” she said.

The Biden White House has not yet set a public timeline for when it expects to release the additional aid money.

Of the roughly $66 billion in aid that Congress approved for Puerto Rico after the 2017 storm, only about $17.3 billion — less than a third of the total amount — has been distribute­d to the American territory. Federal agencies have promised to distribute around $41.7 billion, according to late-January figures from the Central Office of Recovery, Reconstruc­tion and Resiliency, which oversees federally funded reconstruc­tion projects in Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rican officials have said the absence of the approved money has stalled recovery efforts. The funds have been slow to reach the island in part because of funding requiremen­ts due to Trump administra­tion fears of mismanagem­ent and corruption in the Puerto Rican government.

Puerto Rico is still recovering from Hurricane Maria, which killed thousands and demolished critical infrastruc­ture in 2017, even as it grapples with an earthquake sequence that began in late 2019 and the coronaviru­s pandemic. Both Puerto

Rican officials and federal officials have said the delays in receiving the hurricaner­elief money have pushed back infrastruc­ture repairs and increased the burden on residents.

In the Biden campaign plan for Puerto Rico, the president said he would “accelerate access to promised reconstruc­tion funding” for the island and promised to “immediatel­y instruct” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Housing and Urban Developmen­t (HUD), and other federal government agencies to work with the Puerto Rican government to distribute the money “efficientl­y” and “effectivel­y” to the disaster-stricken island.

The two agencies that set aside the most funding for Puerto Rico recovery, according to both state and federal data — HUD and FEMA — have both set requiremen­ts considered onerous for the evaluation process for disburseme­nts.

Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi recently told The Washington Post he has spoken with senior officials in the Biden White House about releasing the outstandin­g relief money.

Hurricane Maria was the third-costliest natural disaster in American history, incurring around $90 billion in damage, according to a National Hurricane Center report.

A 2018 study from the University of Michigan and the University of Utah showed that the federal government responded “much more quickly” and “on a larger scale” in Texas and Florida after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma than in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. The discrepanc­y could not be chalked up to storm severity or need, according to the research.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States