At a Glance
- Two HUD officials made the admission during a recent congressional hearing.
- The move was the latest in the conflict over U.S. support for Puerto Rico.
Officials with the Department of Housing and Urban Development purposely missed a September deadline to release billions of dollars in hurricane recovery funds to Puerto Rico, saying they don't trust the U.S. territory's housing agency to handle the money properly.
The admission was made by HUD head of Community Planning and Development David Woll and Chief Financial Officer Irving Dennis at a congressional hearing this week.
Some members of Congress at the hearing said the move violated federal law that was set in the appropriations bill that included the funds.
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Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), chair of the Appropriations Committee, called the move by HUD "perpetual stonewalling," Newsweek reported.
"No caveats. No carve outs. No exemptions," Lowey told Woll and Dennis. "It's not just unacceptable: It is unlawful."
The move was the latest in the continuing dispute between the Trump administration and Puerto Rico over federal support following Hurricane Maria, which devastated parts of the island just over two years ago. In this latest round, HUD officials said Puerto Rico's housing agency was not capable of handling the huge influx of money.
"When you think of $20 billion going through an entity that has no infrastructure for that, that does not get developed overnight. When you think of the capacity they need, they need people, they need processes and they need technology," Dennis said. "We're trying to make sure it is that there is good oversight and controls and policies in place."
Puerto Rico has received about a third of some $43 billion in disaster aid that is supposed to help with hurricane recovery efforts, including rebuilding tens of thousands of homes with still-damaged roofs, according to the NBC News report. The network said Puerto Rico has received only the first $1.5 billion of a total of $20 billion in HUD funds.
Experts have predicted that the issue won't be resolved unless HUD appoints a financial monitor for Puerto Rico.
“No one more than Puerto Ricans want oversight, but what we’ve seen so far doesn’t work,” Miguel Soto-Class, founder and president of the non-partisan think tank Center for a New Economy, previously told NBC. “We don’t want punishment disguised as oversight.”
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