Puerto Rico
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Hurricane Maria was the worst natural disaster to ever affect Puerto Rico and the fifth worst Atlantic storm in history. The majority of the island’s state-owned, already fragile 2,400 miles of transmission lines, 30,000 miles of distribution lines and 342 substations were severely damaged in the storm, leaving 3.7 million residents without electricity. Air-traffic-control systems were taken out. Agricultural crops and local fishery reefs were decimated. Roads and bridges were badly damaged, and over 470,000 houses were destroyed. A full 100 days after the storm, half of the population (or around 1.5 million people) still had no electricity. Six months later, 16 percent of the island (or almost 200,000 people) were still without electricity.
The first Trump administration’s response to the Hurricane Maria disaster was terrible. The flippant, condescending behavior went far beyond Donald Trump throwing paper towels into a group of Puerto Ricans, an image that quickly became the face of the disaster.
A report from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) acknowledged many failures, among them: “FEMA entered the hurricane season with a force strength less than its target, resulting in staffing shortages across the incidents; field leaders reported some resultant inefficiency in program delivery; and while FEMA mobilized billions of dollars in commodities, the Agency experienced challenges in comprehensively tracking resources moving across multiple modes of transportation to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands due to staffing shortages and business process shortfalls.”
Politico reported the fiasco like this:
No two hurricanes are alike, and Harvey and Maria were vastly different storms that struck areas with vastly different financial, geographic and political situations. But a comparison of government statistics relating to the two recovery efforts strongly supports the views of disaster-recovery experts that FEMA and the Trump administration exerted a faster, and initially greater, effort in Texas, even though the damage in Puerto Rico exceeded that in Houston.
Within six days of Hurricane Harvey, U.S. Northern Command had deployed 73 helicopters over Houston, which are critical for saving victims and delivering emergency supplies. It took at least three weeks after Maria before it had more than 70 helicopters flying above Puerto Rico. Nine days after the respective hurricanes, FEMA had approved $141.8 million in individual assistance to Harvey victims, versus just $6.2 million for Maria victims.
During the first nine days after Harvey, FEMA provided 5.1 million meals, 4.5 million liters of water and over 20,000 tarps to Houston; but in the same period, it delivered just 1.6 million meals, 2.8 million liters of water and roughly 5,000 tarps to Puerto Rico. Nine days after Harvey, the federal government had 30,000 personnel in the Houston region, compared with 10,000 at the same point after Maria. It took just 10 days for FEMA to approve permanent disaster work for Texas, compared with 43 days for Puerto Rico. Seventy-eight days after each hurricane, FEMA had approved 39 percent of federal applications for relief from victims of Harvey, versus 28 percent for Maria.
On March 26, 2019, President Trump solidified his personal position when he told fellow Republicans that he opposed additional disaster aid for Puerto Rico. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) was in a meeting with Trump and recounted Trump saying that aid for Puerto Rico “is way out of proportion to what Texas and Florida and others have gotten.” … which was, as Politico made clear, untrue.
That same day, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Inspector General’s Office confirmed they were investigating whether the White House interfered in the distribution of aid money to Puerto Rico, an investigation that ultimately found the Trump administration blocked Puerto Rico from receiving federal disaster aid and obstructed the investigation into the matter. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General found that FEMA “did not manage Puerto Rico Disaster Case Management Program funds in accordance with federal regulations and FEMA program requirements.”
To complicate matters even more, in July 2019, Puerto Rico’s former secretary of education and former head of Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration, plus four other people under contract with Governor Ricardo Rosselló’s administration, were charged with 32 counts of money laundering and fraud, among other charges, for allegedly embezzling $15.5 million in federal funds from 2017 to 2019. Mired in multiple scandals – fueled by vulgar and profanity-laced leaked private chats between Rosselló, members of his administration, and other close associates that uncovered possible conflicts of interest and violations of the law – Rosselló resigned on July 24, 2019.
Eight years after the FOMB was born, very little has changed. Although the Board has helped the Puerto Rican government restructure about 80 percent of its outstanding debt, which lowered total liabilities from over $70 billion to a more workable $37 billion, the Board is still in control because the government still can’t issue debt at reasonable rates, which was a condition of the Board’s dissolution.
Even though the Board was charged with downsizing the government, improving state services, and creating “the necessary foundation for economic growth and to restore opportunity to the people of Puerto Rico,” the island still has the highest number of government employees as a percentage of total employment of any U.S. jurisdiction; has the second highest corporate tax rate in the entire world (37 percent); and the tape for new businesses and entrepreneurship is as red as ever.
In its 2024 financial report, the FOMB made this concerning statement: “In recent years, Puerto Rico has received an unprecedented influx of federal funds and recovery packages of over $120 billion, equivalent to approximately 145 percent of the 2023 GNP… the influx of federal funds in recent years may be masking underlying weaknesses in the Puerto Rico economy.”
When the oversight Board was established, the Congressional Budget Office estimated its administrative work alone would cost $370 million, an amount that would ultimately be charged back to Puerto Rico. However, through the end of 2023, the Board and various outside consultants, attorneys, and other professionals had cost the people of Puerto Rico over $1.5 billion.
Since Puerto Rico became part of the United States in 1898, thanks to the Spanish-American War, the question has remained: Should Puerto Rico pursue U.S. statehood, or should the island remain a self-governing commonwealth of the United States?
In the 2024 election, 57 percent of the Americans living on the U.S. territory voted in favor of becoming a state. Even though the vote is just a symbolic one – only the U.S. Congress can initiate a process of status change for Puerto Rico – the vote is a solid indication of where the people on the island stand. Also in the election, the people of Puerto Rico elected a new governor, Jenniffer González-Colón, who is a supporter of both President Trump and statehood.
As for 1787, we believe the people who live in Puerto Rico, as full-fledged American citizens who pay taxes just like every other American, have the right to determine their own status, and should be able to chart their own path to statehood as provided for in the Puerto Rico Status Act.