It’s more than enough aid for Puerto Rico!
The White House on Wednesday formally threatened to veto a House bill that would provide billions of dollars in additional funding for earthquake relief in Puerto Rico.
The earthquake swarm continues to rattle and stress Puerto Ricans… As of yesterday, another M5.0 struck Puerto Rico. That’s the 11th earthquake of at least that size in the past 30 days. But enough is enough! The White House on Wednesday has formally threatened to veto a House bill that would provide billions of dollars in additional funding for earthquake relief in Puerto Rico.
Aid or Corruption Chaos?
The House is set to vote later this week on legislation that would allocate $4.7 billion in funds after the island, still reeling from 2017’s Hurricane Maria, was devastated by multiple earthquakes last month.
Introduced by Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the legislation ought to “help families and communities recover from these devastating earthquakes and puts Puerto Rico on a better path to long-term recovery.”
But President Trump would veto the “misguided” bill, citing the administration’s past efforts to assist the island in recovery efforts and raising questions about the prudence of providing additional aid to the Puerto Rican government.
“Neither Puerto Ricans nor the American taxpayers benefit when emergency aid is misallocated, lost, or stolen through waste, fraud, and abuse,” the White House said in its veto threat, which continues like that:
“Puerto Rico has a long history of inadequate financial controls over regular government operations, which forced the Congress to appoint a financial control board in 2016. Multiple high-profile cases of corruption have marred distribution of aid already appropriated and have led to ongoing political instability on the island.“
The OMB also accused House Democrats of rushing the legislation.
Presidential Skepticism
Trump has long expressed skepticism about providing significant amounts of aid to Puerto Rico while simultaneously giving his administration high marks for its response to Hurricane Maria and pointing to tens of billions of dollars already allocated to the island.
That storm destroyed island infrastructure for months, and a government-commissioned study found that nearly 3,000 people died as a result of the hurricane.
The 2019-2020 Puerto Rico earthquake swarm has damaged critical infrastructure and left hundreds of thousands of residents without power. More earthquake disaster news on Strange Sounds or Steve Quayle. [Whitehouse, The Hill]
When you need IV and medicines for Corona Virus n2019 or other issues then they say we have low shortages of IV and Masks and medicines, please remember we forgotten Puerto Rico from Maria Typhoon and major quakes still shaking this Island. You suppose to believe that we cut off money to that Island is reasonable? In Canada we have told we will not give you IV until you are in death or surgery situations? Just please remember your life is connected to Puerto Rico plants that make IV and other medicines?
Since if you simply gave the money to Puerto Rico’s political establishment most of the money will go into the pockets of corrupt politicians I don’t blame the White House for being reluctant. Maybe they want to make sure the money is used to mitigate the damage from the earthquakes instead lining corrupt politicians pockets.