As Puerto Rico marks the third anniversary of the devastation brought by Hurricane Maria on Sunday, both Joe Biden and President Donald Trump put the island — still dealing with the national crisis caused by the storm — at the forefront of the presidential campaign this week.
On Tuesday, the Biden campaign revealed a plan to help Puerto Rico recover from years of turmoil. The former vice president’s proposal sought to address some of the main issues the island has been facing in the last few years, including the reconstruction of infrastructure linked to the hurricane.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration announced Friday two of the largest grants ever from the Federal Emergency Management Administration will be awarded to “rebuild the island’s electric grid and spur recovery of the territory’s education system.” The grants of nearly $13 billion come as Puerto Ricans have been suffering for three years without safe homes or a stable electric system.
While the administration has touted the large influx of money allocated to the island’s recovery, little of it has been used. Puerto Rico has been approved to use only 16% of the $20.2 billion in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds linked to Hurricane Maria due to restrictions from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and issues with the island’s unstable government, according to the Center for Investigative Journalism. From those, only 2% have been used.
Joe Biden’s plan
Biden’s six-page plan says his administration will focus on providing the island with “the resources and technical assistance it needs not only to recover, but also to prosper.”
“It’s positive that Puerto Rico is a campaign topic, but I think it’s negative they have only addressed the easy solutions,” economist Jose Caraballo Cueto, an assistant professor at the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey, told ABC News about Biden’s proposal.
Despite Biden’s important narrative on addressing the island’s ongoing recovery, there are key elements missing that would aid Puerto Rico’s true progress, experts say. Keep Reading>>
