Congress Not Giving Puerto Rico Financial Aid Opting To Issue An Insufficient $5 Billion Dollar Loan

October 17. 2017

Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria

Congress has passed a $36.5 billion dollar natural disaster aid package, in reference to the massive damage incurred in Texas due to Hurricane Harvey, Florida via Hurricane Irma, Mississippi in Hurricane Nate, California due to raging wildfires and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, under Hurricane Maria. However, many online were upset to discover Puerto Rico has been allocated $5 billion dollars in the form of a loan, not grant. U.S. states impacted by natural disasters were given money.

Estimates vary for the repair and rebuilding costs in Puerto Rico, particularly the electrical grid that was destroyed by the storm. Over 80% of the island is without power, which will not be fully restored for up to 5-months. Many still lack clean drinking water. Homes need to be rebuilt. It is a monumental task. Though $5 billion is a large sum, it is not enough to fully address what happened to Puerto Rico's infrastructure. Repaying the loan will not be an easy task for an already damaged economy ($73 billion in debt to Wall Street in America). There needs to be some debt forgiveness regarding Puerto Rico.

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