Biff_Poindexter
Diamond Member
Trump delayed $20bn in aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, report finds
Funding was ‘unnecessarily delayed’ by bureaucratic obstacles, after hurricane killed thousands of people in 2017
www.theguardian.com
"The Trump administration delayed more than $20bn in hurricane relief aid for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, according to a report by the housing department’s office of the inspector General. The efforts to deliver recovery funding to the island were “unnecessarily delayed by bureaucratic obstacles”, according to the 46-page report. The hurricane, which hit the island in 2017, killed thousands of people and left thousands more without electricity or water for months. One of the main hurdles was the requirement imposed by the Office of Management and Budget, The process, which was never before required for allocating disaster funds.
On Monday, Hud removed restrictions imposed by the Trump administrationon access to $8.2bn in Community Development Block Grant Mitigation. The agency stalled the release of the disaster relief aid in 2019 and imposed additional restrictions on how the island could access the funds."
Furthermore, federal funding was held up for over a month; of the 20bn allocated by Congress, the Trump admin only released less than 4 billion of it....also, despite the loss of 1000's of lives; to be exact, more than 5000 people died in that tragedy....and I guarantee you not a single Trumper knew that before reading this post..and yet, there were no conspiracies of child abductions, nobody claimed Trump wanted to see people die, no attacks against others for "wanting people to die", etc, etc, etc....
On top of that, the iconic meme of Trump throwing paper towels to people - that came 15 days after the hurricane. I don't recall a single Trumper outraged over Trump taking 15 days to go to Puerto Rico. Oh, and how Trumpers mock Biden for issuing $700 to residents in Maui, not a dime was issued to Puerto Rican households, and you won't hear Trumpers complain about that either. Let's contrast that to the Maui response.
Biden approves national disaster declaration for Hawaii as wildfire response continues
Biden has also offered his condolences to the families of the victims.
www.hawaiinewsnow.com
"President Biden has approved a national disaster declaration for Hawaii, unlocking federal resources to help in the massive response efforts to the ongoing wildfires.“I’m going to make sure that the state has everything needs from the federal government to recover,” Biden said, in remarks Thursday morning. “Our prayers are with with the people of Hawaii, but not just our prayers. Every asset we have will be available to them.” Gov. Josh Green said he was notified early Thursday that Biden approved for the declaration.
The state says the approval makes federal funding available to affected individuals in Maui County. The assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and programs to help people recover from the the disaster."
In addition to this, federal funding was available within 6 to 12 hours of the wildfires; there is no effort to try to restrict allocation of federal funding for stupid ass reasons like in the previous administration - for example, when the Trump admin refused to give funding for the California wildfires, just to "own the libs" -- and later had to reverse its decision due to caving in to pressure -- and not a single Trumper complained.
When it comes to disaster relief for AMERICANS no matter if they are from a red state or a blue state -- the shti that matters most is what is being DONE to assist them...not a single presidential photo op or speech has done anything significant in comparison to ACTUAL funding and boots on the ground - and what is clear is, one admin repeated delayed and played games with that funding for political reasons and one didn't. All of that conspiracy bullshit will remain that, bullshit.
