U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain granted a motion yesterday that forbids Puerto Rico from using disaster relief money to repay creditors who are owed roughly $72 billion in debt repayments, Reuters reported.
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The Senate sent President Donald Trump a $36.5 billion hurricane relief bill Tuesday that gives Puerto Rico access to $4.9 billion in low-interest Treasury loans, amid concerns that recovery efforts from the recent disasters will require significantly more funding, Bloomberg News reported.
Puerto Rico and Whitefish Energy Holdings yesterday defended their $300 million contract for the small Montana company to repair the U.S. territory’s hurricane-ravaged power grid after the deal was criticized by U.S. lawmakers, Reuters reported. The back-and-forth comes as Puerto Rico struggles to restore power to more than 80 percent of the island a month after Hurricane Maria made landfall.
The Senate is moving forward on a disaster aid package this week, despite concerns from some lawmakers that it would “bail out”' the struggling federal flood insurance program and doesn’t include enough money to help states recover from devastating hurricanes, USA Today reported today.