If you go by what you hear from liberal media outlets, especially Univision, Puerto Rico has received next to nothing in U.S. government aid since Hurricane María struck last September.
For partisan political purposes, Democrat politicians like San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz are all too happy to work hand-in-glove with the liberal media in propagating this myth, as was the case during a recent round of interviews the Mayor had on Univision.
ALAN TACHER, HOST, DESPIERTA AMERICA, UNIVISION: Today we speak with her live about this award and of course, very important, the current situation faced by the Island of Enchantment that after months and months and months, there is still havoc on this island, no?, after the hurricane struck and the little help it gets from the government.
When it was Univision anchor Jorge Ramos’s turn for the interview with the Bernie-aligned Democratic gubernatorial hopeful, the “little help” Puerto Rico has received from the federal government for hurricane recovery turned into “no help.”
JORGE RAMOS, HOST, AL PUNTO, UNIVISION: The Trump government has not helped you.
The truth, however, is that, according to the official government data, during the first six months following the hurricane, the nation’s largest remaining territory received record-breaking amounts of aid, totaling $9.9 billion, second only to the $13.6 billion the State of Louisiana received during the first six months after Hurricane Katrina.
That number was above the $5.0 billion in FEMA funding that went to Texas following Hurricane Harvey, the $2.5 billion that went to Florida following Hurricane Irma and the $2.8 billion that went to New York after Hurricane Sandy hit back in 2012.
In addition, according to FEMA, Puerto Rico has been approved for a total of $20 billion in Community Development Block Grants, administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
As of April 20, the “Trump government”, as Jorge Ramos calls it, had made its response to Hurricane María in Puerto Rico the longest sustained domestic air mission of food and water in U.S. history. Over 4,800 sorties delivered more than 63 million meals and 74 million liters of water, in addition to over 2,100 government-supplied electrical generators that were installed during the largest disaster generator mission in U.S. history. In addition, Puerto Rico received more than 125,000 temporary FEMA roofing tarps, while 59,000 blue roofs were provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
All of the above is seldom if ever mentioned in the national media. Nor was it mentioned last week, when the U.S. Department of Education announced that Puerto Rico will receive nearly $600 million in emergency federal assistance for the island’s public schools. The new funding is part of the Department’s Immediate Aid to Restart School Operations program, also known as the K-12 Restart program, that awards emergency assistance to schools affected by natural disasters.
In contrast, the Texas Education Agency and the California Department of Education will receive a much smaller share of such funds, at $89.4 million and $14.4 million, respectively.
Remember this the next time you hear hogwash from Democrat politicians – and their allies in the liberal media – repeating that the “Trump government” has provided “little” or “no” help to our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico.
