Puerto Rico will have to wait until May for Congress to resume discussions over disaster relief funding, deepening a growing uncertainty over hurricane recovery efforts.
“These funds are very critical for our plans to achieve full recovery and achieve certain goals associated with housing infrastructure and economic development programs,” Manuel Laboy Rivera, Puerto Rico’s secretary of economic development, told NBC News. “After this devastation that happened in 2017 [Hurricanes Maria and Irma], Puerto Rico should be in the right path for long term recovery and the funds associated with that, as any other U.S. jurisdiction, should be addressed with a greater sense of urgency.”
Lawmakers failed to pass legislation to provide disaster relief funds to areas affected by hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters before leaving for a two-week recess.
“Congress should have already passed a desperately-needed disaster aid package instead of delaying action,” said Erica González, director of the advocacy group Power 4 Puerto Rico, in a statement. “Nutritional assistance and resiliency support are a matter of life and death for so many Puerto Ricans on the island.” Read more>>
