Trump tried to illegally withhold disaster relief money from Puerto Rico

[tulc]

https://www.vox.com/2019/1/17/18186818/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-funds

A Washington Post article on the resignation of deputy Housing and Urban Development Secretary Pam Patenaude, a housing policy professional who’s been de facto running the department under the vague auspices of Ben Carson, also contains the stunning information that President Trump attempted to illegally cut off federal disaster assistance to the island of Puerto Rico.

We already knew that in October, Trump tweeted — inaccurately — that the Puerto Rican government was planning to use disaster relief money to pay off old debts.

But the new report says Trump went beyond bad tweets and tried to base policy on this misapprehension, urging his team to violate the law and redirect the disaster assistance money to Texas and Florida instead:

Trump told then-White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and then-Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney that he did not want a single dollar going to Puerto Rico, because he thought the island was misusing the money and taking advantage of the government, according to a person with


direct knowledge of the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive internal deliberations. Instead, he wanted more of the money to go to Texas and Florida, the person said.

“POTUS was not consolable about this,” the person said.

Patenaude told White House budget officials during an early December meeting in the Situation Room that the money had been appropriated by Congress and must be sent, according to two people with direct knowledge of the meeting. She assured them that HUD had proper oversight of the funds.

tulc(thinks the President of Puerto Rico should work harder for his people)

 

[NW82]

https://www.vox.com/2019/1/17/18186818/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-funds

tulc(thinks the President of Puerto Rico should work harder for his people)

Containers of Hurricane Donations Found Rotting in Puerto Rico Parking Lot

 

[tulc]

hmmm...FEMA Report Acknowledges Failures In Puerto Rico Disaster Response

"Shipping containers often arrived in Puerto Rico labeled simply as 'disaster supplies,' requiring FEMA staff to unload and open containers to determine their contents," the report stated.

Many of the shortcomings outlined in the report — a lack of key supplies on Puerto Rico before the storm, unqualified staff, and challenges with delivering emergency supplies — were detailed in a recent Frontline and NPR documentary, Blackout in Puerto Rico, slated to re-air July 17.

The report also found FEMA struggled to track supplies from the mainland to the island and through distribution, saying the agency experienced "business process shortfalls." Frontline and NPR found serious flaws in many of the agency's supply contracts.

That lack of planning proved one of the agency's biggest stumbling blocks to the response. The report found the last FEMA disaster planning assessment for Puerto Rico was from 2012 and "underestimated the actual requirements in 2017." In particular, the plans "did not address insufficiently maintained infrastructure (e.g., the electrical grid)" or the "financial liquidity challenges" facing the bankrupt Puerto Rican government.

What's more, FEMA's leadership acknowledged it could have better anticipated the need for federal intervention. The report said that in 2011, a report on a FEMA preparedness exercise on the island "anticipated that the territory would require extensive federal support in moving commodities."

The most critical of those commodities in the weeks after the storm were generators. But the agency didn't have enough and was unable to quickly acquire more. While the agency ultimately installed more than 2,000 generators on Puerto Rico — a record number — FEMA had only 695 in stock when Maria hit and only 31 on the island three days after the storm.

Yep, this seems like something the President of Puerto Rico and his administration could have done a better job of.
tulc(isn't it the Presidents job to protect and help the citizens of his country?)