Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) blasted President Trump over funding for Puerto Rico on Monday, arguing the administration was slow-walking aid.
“Puerto Rico has NOT gotten $91B in recovery aid. Just last week, your administration missed its deadline to release more than $8B in funds for Puerto Rico,” Schumer said in a tweet.
{mosads}He added that “Democrats believe in meeting the needs of all disaster survivors.”
Schumer’s tweet comes after Ben Carson, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), told lawmakers that regulations for roughly $8 billion in disaster funding would be released by May 1. Finalization of the regulations are needed before the money, which is part of the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program, can be released.
A senior Senate Democratic aide told The Hill last week that Democratic staff had been told by HUD that they were ready to begin advancing the funding but the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requested to first “review” the regulations.
“This comes despite the fact that OMB has been a part of HUD’s work in this effort from the beginning. When asked how long OMB’s review would take, HUD was noncommittal and said that it is up to OMB and ‘out of their control,’” the aide added.
The hold up on the funding comes as members of the Senate Appropriations Committee are trying to reach a deal that could break the weeks-long stalemate over the chamber’s disaster aid bill.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) has been meeting with Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and said late last week that talks were “trending” in a positive direction.
The disaster aid package fell apart in the Senate last month after Trump criticized Puerto Rico’s handling of previous disaster aid money during a closed-door meeting with GOP senators.
The GOP proposal included $600 million for food stamp aid in Puerto Rico. Democrats wanted to amend it to include additional provisions, like requiring HUD to release block grant funding and adding money to help Puerto Rico repair damaged water systems.