Trump administration yet to deliver much of the disaster funds it owes Puerto Rico – Washington Examiner

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President Trump has complained in recent days that Puerto Rico has been granted too much federal disaster relief. But his administration has yet to deliver much of the money that Congress directed toward the U.S. territory following historic hurricane damage.

Trump told Senate Republicans during a Tuesday lunch meeting that while he is resigned to $600 million in supplemental nutritional assistance flowing to Puerto Rico despite his opposition, he thinks the territory received too much help.

“He thinks the amount they’ve gotten is way out of proportion with the amount that Texas and Florida and others have gotten,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., one of the senators present. Rubio noted that Puerto Rico faced unique problems in that it had a pre-existing debt crisis and was hit by two hurricanes in quick succession.

The funding immediately in question is $600 million in low-income food assistance rolled into a relief package aimed at more recent natural disasters in the mainland U.S. But the administration has held up billions already provided by Congress to the flailing territory. Much of the money flows through the Department of Housing and Urban Development. But most of it has yet to actually be delivered to Puerto Rico.

The department’s explanations for dragging its feet on the aid have shifted.

In a January interview, HUD spokesperson Brian Sullivan denied that Puerto Rico had submitted the action plan necessary to disburse billions in relief funds. When Sullivan was provided a copy of that plan, published online in November 2018, he instead blamed the partial government shutdown for the delay in sending out the money, which the government had already appropriated.

“Still, the staff isn’t here to review it properly,” said Sullivan. “How do you, without appropriations, do the necessary due diligence?”

Still, Sullivan acknowledged “inconsistency” with the department’s written guidance prior to the shutdown. In that guidance, the department said it would approve grant plans submitted by Puerto Rico and other areas eligible for disaster relief within 45 days, unless the department objected to how those funds would be used. Puerto Rico’s plan was submitted Nov. 18, but HUD did not approve its plan as that guidance suggested it would.

Instead, on Jan. 14, nearly 60 days after Puerto Rico submitted that plan, HUD waived the guidance and established “an alternative requirement” for its own review of plans, further extending the timeline. To date, Puerto Rico has received 7.5 percent of the $20 billion in community development block grants owed to it by HUD, despite the fact that HUD announced the approval of more funds at the beginning of March.

On Wednesday, Sullivan said that HUD had yet to present Puerto Rico’s government with a grant contract that would allow an additional $8.2 billion in recovery grants to flow to the island, despite the fact that the department announced approval for those funds on March 1. Sullivan said that the agency was working with the Office of Management and Budget to finalize language around the grant.

Pam Patenaude, HUD’s deputy secretary and a longtime housing policy veteran who supervised the department’s recovery efforts, resigned suddenly in December, citing personal reasons. According to the Washington Post, Patenaude objected to a directive from the White House to redirect funding from Puerto Rico to other areas of the country, which would violate the law Congress passed to distribute those funds and Congress’s constitutional authority to appropriate funds.

“I didn’t push back. I advocated for Puerto Rico and assured the White House that Puerto Rico had sufficient financial controls in place and had put together a thoughtful housing and economic development recovery plan,” Patenaude told the Post.

The $600 million in food stamps for Puerto Rico has strong support in the Senate. Only 10 senators — all Republicans — opposed advancing the overall package, which is primarily aimed at disaster assistance for states that experienced natural disasters in the past several months, such as California, Alabama, and Hawaii.

According to Rubio, Trump set the stage for the administration to oppose Medicaid funding for the territory, similar to that which states receive. That funding is expected to run out by March 2020.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/trump-administration-yet-to-deliver-much-of-the-disaster-funds-it-owes-puerto-rico

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