Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy joined 32 Senate Democrats, including Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, in a letter to President Donald Trump Tuesday in support of Puerto Rico’s request for a major disaster declaration following weeks of earthquakes.
On January 7, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake shook the island -- the strongest to hit Puerto Rico in a century -- leaving more than one million residents without power. Many schools have been closed indefinitely and the Costa Sur power generation plant -- the largest on the island’s grid -- sustained such severe damage that it will need 500 megawatts of emergency generation for the rest of the year, according to the letter.
Calling the situation on the island “dire,” the letter said that Governor of Puerto Rico Wanda Vazquez Garced requested the disaster declaration on January 11. She asked for aid for individual municipalities and hazard mitigation for the entire island.
The senators charged that the Department of Housing and Urban Development has failed to disburse $8.3 billion in Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Recovery funding appropriated by the U.S. Congress for mitigation projects in Puerto Rico.
“There is no substantive reason to withhold this congressionally-mandated disaster aid for our fellow Americans on the island, and indeed failure to disburse these funds has a damaging material impact on Puerto Rico and its residents," the senators wrote. “The bottom line is that this money must be made available to Puerto Rico now and failure to do so is in violation of Congress’ explicit intent.”
