Tercer mensaje de Estado de Ricardo Rossello

 

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Why is Puerto Rico getting $91 billion in disaster relief

By Glenn Kessler

March 28

“Trump noted to GOP senators that Texas — also battered by a spate of hurricanes — was awarded $29 billion in aid, while South Carolina got $1.5 billion to recover from storms. Trump then questioned why Puerto Rico was getting $91 billion, according to two people familiar with his comments, indicating that this was too much compared with compensation for states on the mainland.”

— The Washington Post, March 26, 2019

President Trump has been complaining about the cost of the recovery effort for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. In a private meeting with Republican senators he tossed out a number — $91 billion.

The figure is significantly higher than what is known about appropriated funds for Puerto Rico. But administration officials say he has a basis for using it.

Let’s explore.

The Facts

Getting a full picture on federal government spending for Puerto Rico so far is difficult because it’s spread across different agencies and spending bills. But here’s the best possible estimate we received, as of March 27, after communications with officials in different agencies.

• Federal Emergency Management Agency: $15 billion obligated ($9.9 billion in outlays)
• Army Corps of Engineers: $2.5 billion approved ($3 million in outlays)
• Community Development Block Grants-Disaster Recovery (Housing and Urban Development): $20 billion approved, of which $1.5 billion has been obligated
• Small Business Administration: $1.95 billion for homes/business loans obligated ($1.1 billion in outlays)
• Education Department: $710 million obligated ($28 million in outlays)
• FEMA community disaster loans: $294 million obligated ($128 million in outlays)
• Various other agencies: $266 million approved (lesser amounts in outlays)

That adds up to nearly $41 billion in announced funding. But notice words like “obligated” and “outlays”?

Here’s an explanation:

• Outlays = money has been delivered
• Obligated = spending has been identified but money not delivered
• Approved = A budget allocation has been made, but money has not been obligated or disbursed.

About half of the money scheduled for Puerto Rico comes from the HUD grants. But virtually none of that funding has been spent yet. HUD in July said it had approved spending $1.5 billion but the funds had not been drawn down yet, according to a Government Accountability Office reportreleased this month. About 50 percent has been earmarked for home repair and reconstruction.

A HUD official said Puerto Rico has the $1.5 billion in hand, but has spent just $42,000. “It should take Puerto Rico approximately two to three years to spend the $1.5 billion,” the official said. “Following Superstorm Sandy, the state of New Jersey disbursed $1 billion over the course of two years.”

Another $8.2 billion of the $20 billion HUD allocation was approved in February but not yet delivered. That still leaves about half of the $20 billion untouched.

In other words, depending on how you do the math, only about a quarter of the total pot of money has actually been spent on the island — $11.2 billion.

So how does Trump come up with $91 billion?

Officials told The Fact Checker that the president was referring to an internal Office of Management and Budget estimate of the potential liabilities over the life of the disaster that would need to be committed under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1988. The estimate was described as a high-end estimate subject to change year by year.

Currently, the estimated Stafford liabilities amount to $50 billion. Adding the $41 billion in announced funding to the $50 billion in Stafford liabilities gets you to $91 billion.

Notice that we said the additional $50 billion was “over the life of a disaster.” That means it’s a long-term figure, beyond the traditional 10-year budget horizon. Indeed, one congressional aide estimated that Stafford payments will continue for 20 years in Puerto Rico. The government is still paying for the damage from Hurricane Katrina almost 14 years after it struck New Orleans.

Texas has been allocated $25 billion, but its estimated Stafford liabilities are much smaller — just $4 billion, according to the OMB estimate. Together, that adds up to $29 billion.

What apparently caught Trump’s attention was the relative scale — with the estimated long-term cost of Puerto Rican repairs potentially three times larger than the cost of Hurricane Harvey in Texas.

The Pinocchio Test
Without a direct, verified quote, we cannot evaluate the accuracy of the president’s statement. His remarks were interpreted by senators as money already committed or spent. But administration officials said he was talking about future liabilities, especially in relative terms to other recent disasters.

The president sometimes speaks about future spending as if it’s already taken place. But if he’s comparing various Stafford estimates, it could be reasonable to use 20-year figures as long as he indicated that this did not reflect current obligations. (Update: On March 28, Trump put it this way in remarks to reporters: “We have $91 billion going to Puerto Rico. We have $29 billion to Texas and $12 billion to Florida for the hurricanes.” He did not indicate that he was talking about long-term, 20-year estimates.)

But at least now the mystery is solved about the source of the $91 billion number.

 

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Vision 2020 – Ricardo Rossello

Legisladores estatales de Washington proponen incorporar a Puerto Rico como territorio

Washington.-  Un grupo de legisladores de la Cámara de Representantes del estado de Washington ha presentado una medida que busca una expresión de apoyo a la incorporación de Puerto Rico como territorio de Estados Unidos.

La integración a Estados Unidos, aunque necesaria para caminar hacia la estadidad, no supone otorgar automáticamente la estadidad a Puerto Rico advierte la resolución.

La medida, presentada por el republicano Dan Stokesbary y otros 16 legisladores estatales, advierte que como territorio no incorporado, Puerto Rico no tiene acceso al trato igual bajo las leyes federales, como el acceso a la Seguridad de Ingresos Suplementarios (SSI), y otros programas de bienestar social.

Como territorio incorporado, aunque no tendría los derechos políticos de un estado (como votar por el presidente de EE.UU. y tener plena representación en el Congreso), los residentes de Puerto Rico tendrían que pagar contribuciones federales sobre ingresos.

“La negativa de Estados Unidos a otorgar trato igual a los residentes de Puerto Rico bajo ciertas leyes federales se justifica únicamente sobre la base de que Puerto Rico no está incorporado a la Estados Unidos, a pesar de más de cien años de asimilación en la cultura, la economía y el proceso político de los Estados Unidos”, indica la medida legislativa presentada el lunes en la Cámara baja estatal.

La medida propone enviar copia de la resolución al presidenteDonald Trump y al liderato del Congreso.

“Este es un asunto de igualdad. Puerto Rico ha votado dos veces en los últimos siete años para convertirse en parte de nuestra gran nación”, indicó Stokesbary, en un comunicado de prensa.

La más reciente legislación pro estadidad de la comisionada residente enWashington, Jenniffer González, propuso también incorporar a  la isla como territorio y entonces crear un Grupo de Trabajo del Congreso que estudiara los cambios a las leyes que son necesarios para convertir a Puerto Rico en el estado 51.

Mañana, las autoridades de Washington D.C. llevarán a cabo en el Congreso el día a favor de la estadidad para la capital estadounidense, para promover el proyecto de admisión como estado que tiene el respaldo de 195 demócratas de la Cámara de Representantes.

Presentación del libro The “de facto” Incorporated U. S. Territory of Puerto Rico

Presentación del libro The “de facto” Incorporated U. S. Territory of Puerto Rico por el abogado Lic Gregorio Igartua. En el libro Igartua establece que el Congreso debe de clasificar ya a Puerto Rico como un territorio incorporado con grandes beneficios para Puerto Rico.

El nuevo proyecto proestadidad fue presentado en el Congreso

La medida propone la incorporación inmediata de Puerto Rico y recomendar las medidas que se requieren para la transición

Washington – La nueva legislación proestadidad de la comisionada Jenniffer González persigue que inicialmente Puerto Rico se convierta en un territorio incorporado y se cree un Grupo de Trabajo del Congreso para examinar los cambios en las leyes estadounidenses que se requieren para admitir a Puerto Rico como estado 51 de Estados Unidos a más tardar en 2021.

Teniendo en cuenta que un Congreso no obliga al otro, el proyecto de ley – que tiene el respaldo de 36 legisladores-, establece que su ratificación supondría “la intención del Congreso de aprobar legislación a base del informe final del Grupo de Trabajo”.

Bajo el territorio incorporado, Puerto Rico tendría que pagar contribuciones federales sobre ingresos sin los derechos políticos de la estadidad.

Ocho de los nueve miembros del comité serían nombrados por el liderato del Congreso. El noveno miembro sería la comisionada residente.

La medida tiene el respaldo de los republicanos que presiden el Comité de Recursos Naturales de la Cámara baja federal, Rob Bishop (Utah), y del subcomité de Asunto Insulares, Doug LaMalfa (California).

El Grupo de Trabajo deberá estudiar las leyes de Estados Unidos y hacer recomendaciones al Congreso y al presidente de Estados Unidos – a más tardar el 1 de enero de 2021-, sobre cómo leyes que no aplican al territorio de Puerto Rico o aplican de forma diferente a los estados, deben ser enmendadas o eliminadas para permitir la transición hacia el trato igual de Puerto Rico.

El congresista LaMalfa sostuvo que una vez se hagan los estudios correspondientes, entonces el Congreso tomará su decisión.

En el Senado, la presidenta del Comité de Energía y Recursos Naturales, la republicana Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), ha indicado que no tiene en agenda el debate sobre el status político de Puerto Rico.

Time to make Puerto Rico the 51st state.

Puerto Rico has become a colonial ghetto. Time to make it the 51st state.

Pedro Rossello, Opinion contributor Published Jan. 23, 2018 / USA TODAY

Former governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Rossello, comments on the effort seeking to request statehood for the island.

Longest-held territory in U.S. history remains a blemish in the American credo of democracy.

Following back-to-back destruction by two of the most powerful hurricanes in recent history, Puerto Rico has been dramatically present in national news. One prominent element of the coverage has been the recognition that Puerto Ricans are natural-born U.S. citizens. Another salient aspect of mainstream news media communications has been the delayed, inadequate and ultimately unfair treatment afforded these citizens at this tragic hour — solely based on where they live.

In the years after the U.S. acquired Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898, following an invasion of U.S. troops during the Spanish-American War, the political conditions and the civil rights of residents have been defined by a series of federal Supreme Court decisions, known as the Insular Cases, legalizing their unequal treatment.

The most notable of the six decisions came in 1901, stating that while in an international sense Puerto Rico was not a foreign country — since it was subject to the sovereignty of and was owned by the United States — it was considered foreign to the U.S. itself.

And the case in 1922, which determined Puerto Rico to be a jurisdiction in which no U.S. citizen could lay claim to all the protections afforded by the Constitution. Regardless of where they may have been born, it held that U.S. citizens automatically lost certain fundamental rights if they opted to live in Puerto Rico.

Notwithstanding this legal construct, Congress granted U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans in 1917. Under federal statute, Puerto Ricans became and are now natural-born U.S. citizens, but with a caveat: Citizenship comes with limited rights compared with those of other U.S. citizens. Among those: The right to vote in national elections, the right to have voting representation in Congress, the right to participate equally in federal health programs such as Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program and others as long as they, or any other Americans, live on the island. The law established a colonial ghetto.

The U.S. tricks the U.N. into keeping a colony

In the mid-20th century, the United Nations adopted a resolution to grant independence to colonial countries and peoples. But by then, the Puerto Rico and U.S. governments had already colluded to remove Puerto Rico from the U.S. list of non-autonomous governments, thus pretending that colonialism on the island had been eradicated.
Today, this longest-held territory in U.S. history remains a blemish in the American credo of democracy.

Status limbo permeates every aspect of life in the island

This civil limbo engenders an egregious and unfair social and economic treatment of American citizens. This inequality includes discriminatory considerations under many federal laws in such fundamental areas as education, health care, infrastructure and economic development. The recently adopted federal tax reform is a dramatic reaffirmation of how this unequal, discriminatory policy seriously hampers the possibilities of economic recovery, following more than a decade of depression.

One of the defining elements in a ghetto is the community’s lack of power. Poverty, in its broad meaning, cannot be merely conceived as a low-income level but rather as a state of powerlessness. After nearly 12 decades of unequal treatment under the aegis of the U.S. Congress, it is time for this last remnant of U.S. imperial rule to be banished to the annals of history.

The people of Puerto Rico have clearly opted for statehood twice in the past five years in open, free and fair plebiscites.

The federal government must acknowledge its responsibility in this shameful situation and proceed to redress more than a century of unequal treatment of the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico. It is time for the U.S. to return to its traditional values as a republic, and renounce its obsolete colonial doctrine by admitting the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico as equal participants with the rest of their fellow citizens in all the states.

As former U.S. attorney general Richard Thornburgh asserts: “Puerto Rico is the last American territory meeting historical criteria for admission to statehood.”

Dr. Pedro Rosselló is a two-term former governor of Puerto Rico (1993-2001). He serves as chairman of the Puerto Rico Shadow Congressional Delegation. He holds a master’s in public health, a doctorate in medicine and a doctorate in education. He is also the father of the current governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló.

USA TODAY

Puerto Rico launches vocal bid for statehood

Puerto Rico launches vocal bid for statehood
Hall of Fame catcher Ivan ‘Pudge’ Rodriguez part of ‘shadow’ delegation

By Tom Howell Jr. – The Washington Times – Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Weary of their “colonial” status, a delegation of Puerto Ricans marched on Capitol Hill Wednesday to demand statehood, saying the island territory pays taxes and serves in the military but is being short-changed by federal programs and lacks the political clout to recover from crises like Hurricane Maria.

Governor Ricardo Rosselló said the storm recovery underscored the island’s lack of congressional voting power — until now, many Americans didn’t know that Puerto Ricans were U.S. citizens — as it lobbies for its fair share of hurricane relief funding, alongside Florida and Texas.

“This is the civil rights issue of this time,” Mr. Rosselló said. “It is inconceivable in the 21st century to have the greatest democracy in the world have a colonial territory.”

Mr. Rosselló said there is no excuse for Congress not to grant actual representation to the island.

A whopping 97 percent of the island’s voters supported statehood last year, up from 61 percent in a 2012 vote, and the platforms of both political parties have supported greater representation for Puerto Rico.

Like D.C. and other territories, Puerto Rico’s delegate to Congress — Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón — doesn’t wield an actual vote on legislation.

Former Puerto Rico Gov. Carlos Romero Barceló and Republican committeewoman Zoraida Fonalledas were named as “shadow” senators on Wednesday, while Hall of Fame baseball catcher Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez headlines a cast of five House representatives that will press members of Congress on statehood.

The delegation said they will lobby on behalf of the 3.4 million Puerto Ricans until they get an admissions bill from Congress that clears the way for a binding vote back home to become the 51st state.

“We will not be passive actors in this effort,” Mr. Rosselló said.
Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the U.S. in 1898 at the end of the Spanish-American War. And while islanders gained U.S. citizenship almost two decades later, island leaders say the federal government still acts like a colonial overlord.

It imposed a fiscal control board to straighten out its debt crisis, and unlike in the states, its Medicaid program is capped, making it difficult to deal with crises like the Zika virus.

Yet the uneven response to Hurricane Maria brought things to a head. Much of the island is still without power, nearly four months after the storm hit, and media investigations suggest the death toll has topped 1,000, even though the official toll is fewer than 70.

“Whether pegging it to recovery money or pegging it to fiscal reform, I do believe there is a higher consciousness” of Puerto Rico’s plight, Mr. Rosselló said.

President Trump said the storm’s effects were exacerbated by crumbling infrastructure on the island. He shot paper towels into the crowd like a basketball player on the foul line during a post-storm visit to the island, causing critics to question his commitment to the recovery.

Alfonso Aguilar, a Republican and Latino activist named to the shadow House delegation, said some people appear to be using Puerto Rico’s plight just to bash Mr. Trump, when the island’s status is the real problem.

Statehood would put the island on equal footing with states that can tap pots of emergency funding and health care dollars, he said.

Others said prejudice was to blame.

Mr. Barcelo said if Puerto Rico were an island of Irishmen instead of Spanish-speakers, “We probably would have been a state long ago.”

Mensaje de Doña Miriam Ramirez

Mensaje de Doña Miriam Ramirez:

“Lo bueno de la Reforma Contributiva Federal para Puerto Rico fue que se acabó el mantengo corporativo, ya Puerto Rico no es un paraiso fiscal para ninguna empresa estadounidense. La nueva reforma eliminó el deseo de todas esas fábricas y farmaceuticas poderosas que gastaban millones en cabilderos para que Puerto Rico se quedara como colonia y paraiso fiscal, porque les convenía contributivamente. Ahora no van a cabildear en contra de la Estadidad, porque ya no tienen esos incentivos que explotaban a Puerto Rico.

Hoy Puerto Rico está más cerca de la Estadidad que nunca, porque con esa Reforma Contributiva Federal eliminamos a los principales aliados de la colonia, que son los principales aliados del PPD. Eso fue el gran logro histórico del Partido Republicano para Puerto Rico. Fue una pena que el PNP no fuera unido al Congreso a exigir que la Isla fuera considerada territorio domestico estadounidense, pero esa lucha la vamos a llevar a cabo en los próximos meses. Tan pronto Puerto Rico entre a ser parte de ese sistema tributario como territorio doméstico de los EE.UU., que lo vamos a lograr con una enmienda, ese es el día que va a nacer el derecho irrefutable de todos los ciudadanos americanos que viven en Puerto Rico a votar por el Presidente, el derecho a tener representantes en el Congreso y a exigir la Estadidad. Si aportamos al fisco federal en igualdad, la Estadidad se convierte en obligación”