Washington – The White House announced tonight that, if approved, the president Donald Trump would veto the project of the Democrats of the House of Representatives who are promoting $ 4,670 million to mitigate the emergency that his own government declared in municipalities of Puerto Rico after the recent earthquakes.
“If project 5687 were presented to the president in its current form, his advisors would recommend that he leave it,” said the public policy statement of the Office of Budget and Management (OMB) of the White House.
The statement once again accentuated the official position of the Trump administration that “Puerto Rico has a long history of inadequate financial controls over regular government operations” and maintained that for this reason the Board of Fiscal Supervision (JSF) that controls the public finances of Puerto Rico.
In turn, he indicated that “multiple high profile corruption cases have tarnished the distribution of aid already allocated and has led to continued political instability on the island.”
In the public policy statement, OMB argued that “this wrong bill would add $ 4.7 billion in addition to all the billions already allocated to Puerto Rico, and its restrictive provisions would prevent the administration (Trump) from ensuring that these funds are spent all right”.
A few days ago, a senior Trump administration official had advanced to The new day The White House’s opposition to the Democratic project, which in addition to allocating $ 4,670 million in emergency funds, promotes a series of tax subsidies that have been pending in the Lower House Media and Arbitration Committee.
This morning, the governor Wanda Vázquez Garced and the commissioner residing in Washington, Jenniffer González, who are linked to the Republicans, had a meeting with what would be the White House liaison for reconstruction issues, Rear Admiral Peter Brown, and the director of the White House Intergovernmental Affairs Office, Douglas Hoeschler.
According to the commissioner, although the issues of pending funds for the Island were discussed after the catastrophe caused by Hurricane Maria, there was no direct talk about the Democratic legislation that can be passed before the end of this week.
“Opposing this aid is simply ruthless,” reacted, for his part, Democratic Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez (New York), to the official announcement of the Trump administration against the assignment project.
Velázquez also criticized the White House again alleging misuse of funds to stop assistance to Puerto Rico. “Continuing to use this argument to hurt some of our most vulnerable citizens is shameful,” said Congresswoman Velázquez.
“President Trump’s relentless opposition to helping our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico moments of need is appalling,” said Senate Democratic minority leader Charles Schumer.
Before the Rules Committee, the leader of the Republican minority in that commission, Tom Cole (Oklahoma), said he does not see an “urgent need” for legislation and that the language is “vague.” Cole said he has yet to be shown that the funds are needed and said the federal government has not yet completed the assessment of the damage after the earthquakes.
“Let’s not throw more money, when there are still billions unused,” Cole said.
The head of the US House of Representatives has officially scheduled the debate and approval of the bill for Friday, which also drives a series of tax subsidies – such as earned income credits (EITC) and dependent children ( CTC) -, which can have an additional impact on the Island of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Congresswoman Velázquez said that both speaker Nancy Pelosi and the chairwoman of the Assignment Committee, Nita Lowey (New York), are committed to adding legislation to any project that Senate or White House Republicans want to push forward.
“It is an issue that can be negotiated” for other projects “, said the Puerto Rican Velázquez, who criticized that in the thousands of words that President Trump spoke in his message about the State of the Union did not appear last night a reference to the emergency that his own government declared on the Island after the earthquakes.
An assignment project that should interest the Trump administration, according to the Democrats, would be an adequate response to the coronavirus. Lowey urged US Health Secretary Alex Azar on Tuesday to prepare a request for funds to address that issue.
Bill 5687 of Congresswoman Lowey seeks to grant Puerto Rico $ 4,670 million in emergency funds, which could be used interchangeably with previously legislated funds to address the catastrophe caused by Hurricane Maria.
The legislation allocates $ 3,260 million in community development program disaster relief funds (CDBG-DR), $ 1,250 million for road improvements and $ 100 million for education needs.
It also includes $ 40 million in food assistance, $ 15 million for technical support to the electricity grid and $ 6.75 million for earthquake risk analysis, improve long-term energy planning, raise awareness of the energy situation and strengthen cybersecurity of infrastructure. review.
Commissioner Gonzalez, who had requested food assistance funds, submitted an amendment to raise that aid from $ 40 million to $ 210 million.
The measure incorporates the language of a project approved in the House and Representatives Committee of the House of Representatives to greatly finance in Puerto Rico the implementation of tax credits for earned income (EITC) and children Dependents (CTC), which can have an economic impact on the Island of more than $ 800 million.
Likewise, it seeks to make permanent the increase in reimbursement for rum arbitration – guaranteeing 46 cents to the Conservation Trust – revives, for the earthquake emergency, federal credits to employers who have retained employees and allocates $ 500 million for credits for investments in low-income communities, and $ 50 million in housing loans to low-income people.
Republican Tom Rice (South Carolina) questioned, on behalf of the minority of the Media and Arbitration Committee, tax subsidies that primarily seek to help Puerto Rico finance the EITC and CTC credits.
Congressman Rice, among other things, stressed that “these people” do not pay federal income taxes, but they want to grant a credit for work financed by the Treasury. His Republican colleague Garret Graves (Louisiana) agreed with that comment.
But, Graves said the legislation – due to the billions of dollars without disbursement – which should allow FEMA and CDBG funds allocated after Hurricane Maria to be used to mitigate the damage caused by earthquakes, such as allows the bill.
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