The Biden administration announced on Monday that it was pitch up to release a$1.3 billion trancheof assist money that was initially earmarked for Puerto Rico ’s Hurricane Maria convalescence until the Trump White House held it hostage .
The money , which will go towards the island ’s defenses against future ruinous climate events , is what the Biden administration described as the first step in a large attempt to tackle racial inequality through policies aimed at address climate change .
In the wake ofMaria ’s carnage , Congress had approve a $ 20 billion package of aid signify to protect the island from succeeding tempest . But that aid had been slow - walk by the Trump administration ’s Department of Housing and Urban Development , which locked the stock up by using limitation that did n’t give to other recipients in the same class , according to policy experts . According to federal information , only about 0.7 percent , or $ 138 million , of that initial aid software package was ever disburse to Puerto Rico — far less than the nitty-gritty doled out to State like Texas and Florida when they were reeling from similar storms during the same time period .
Photo: RICARDO ARDUENGO / Contributor (Getty Images)
“ That slow step of disbursement has dampened Puerto Rico ’s convalescence , ” Rosanna Torres , Washington conductor for the Puerto Rican think armored combat vehicle Center for a New Economy , told the New York Times .
The discrepancy in funding mutate out of what had seemed at the clip like an oddly personal score Trump harbour against the island ’s leaders , which he has repeatedly call “ grossly fumbling . ”
The failure to broadcast adequate amounts of aid has mean that substantive recuperation efforts on the island have lagged — a problem that one HUD spokesman told the Times the Biden giving medication was attempting to address to “ reset ” its relationship with Puerto Rico .
“ The action mechanism we are fill today will help the island build resiliency to future storms and flood tide , ” he enunciate .
Donald TrumpJoe BidenPoliticsTropical cyclone
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