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Velázquez, Schumer Demand HUD Meeting on Puerto Rico

January 14, 2020

Velázquez, Schumer Demand HUD Meeting on Puerto Rico

Washington, DC – Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) and Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have led more than forty Members of Congress in calling for a meeting with the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in light of the agency's ongoing refusal to release previously approved disaster relief funds. The letter notes that following earthquakes that struck Puerto Rico last week and over the weekend, the Island needs all the help it can get. However, HUD has refused to release funds that Congress approved as early as 2018 in response to Hurricane Maria.

"We have repeatedly implored Secretary Carson to follow the law, do right by Puerto Rico and release the assistance our fellow citizens are legally due," noted Velázquez. "We've written him multiple times and still have not received a satisfactory answer on when Puerto Rico will receive this aid. To this day, HUD remains in violation of the law, blocking the people of Puerto Rico from getting the help that Congress intended. That's why, today, we're demanding Secretary Carson meet with us, so we can impress on him the need to get this money in the pipeline and help the people of Puerto Rico recover."

"The Trump administration has repeatedly neglected our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico when they needed us the most - first after devastating hurricanes struck the island and now in the wake of these destructive earthquakes," said Schumer. "If Secretary Carson won't respond to our written questions, then he must meet with us face-to-face to answer for his decision to continue to unlawfully withhold congressionally appropriated aid for over a year and compound the perilous situation now facing our fellow citizens. There is no legitimate rationale for these critical funds to continue to be withheld and we will demand that Secretary Carson immediately move to release the aid that will help hundreds of thousands of Americans."

Several lawmakers wrote Carson last week, demanding the agency make available the previously passed Community Development Block Grant Disaster Relief (CDBG-DR) funds.

Including Velázquez and Schumer, today's letter was signed by thirty-eight Representatives and three Senators, including Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).

The full text of the letter is below and a pdf is online here.

January 13, 2020

The Honorable Dr. Ben Carson

Secretary

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

451 7th Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20410

Dear Secretary Carson:

Some of us wrote to you last Tuesday, January 7th, demanding the immediate and urgent publication of a Federal Register Notice (FRN) detailing the administrative requirements for the disbursement of the $8.3 billion in Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) appropriated in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (PL 115-123). For days now, thousands of Puerto Rican families are sleeping and living in outside tents because they are too afraid to sleep inside their houses or unsecured refuges due to last week's 6.4 magnitude earthquake and the aftershocks that followed.

It has been more than two years since Hurricane Maria and Irma made landfall on the island. However, Puerto Rico has not been able to move forward with reconstruction of the island and provide adequate and secure housing for its residents because the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has illegally withheld the funds that Congress appropriated for these purposes.

Due to the new emergency at hand and the urgency of the situation, we are officially requesting an in-person meeting. It is your responsibility as Secretary of HUD to provide members of Congress an explanation as to why your Department has chosen to violate the law by withholding these critical resources. Puerto Ricans have waited too long. Members of Congress have given HUD more than enough time and HUD has disregarded the explicit deadlines established by law to publish the FRN. It is time we are provided with real answers and a definite date for the disbursement of the CDBG-DR funds for the island.

Congresswoman Velázquez will make the accommodations necessary to set up this meeting with the members. Please provide us with your availability to meet as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Nydia M. Velٔázquez

Senator Schumer

Maxine Waters

Adriano Espaillat

Sylvia R. Garcia

Ruben Gallego

Yvette D. Clarke

Eleanor Holmes Norton

J. Luis Correa

Danny K. Davis

Joaquin Castro

Joseph P. Kennedy III

José E. Serrano

Alcee L. Hastings

James P. McGovern

Grace Meng

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell

Ben Ray Luján

Albio Sires

Jesús G. "Chuy" García

Jerrold Nadler

Gwen Moore

Susan Wild

Darren Soto

Brendan F. Boyle

John B. Larson

Rosa L. DeLauro

Joe Courtney

Kathy Castor

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Sanford D. Bishop

Joseph Morelle

Andre Carson

Vicente Gonzalez

Raul Grijalva

Bill Pacrell, Jr.

Adam Smith

Bill Foster

Senator Gillibrand

Senator Booker

Ayanna Pressley

Issues:Puerto Rico