“Mnuchin spoke at a press conference at the Teatrito of La Fortaleza, after meeting with the governor and some members of his team. (GFR Media)”
With the recent natural disaster in Puerto Rico, the island is still trying to recover and make repairs to damages caused by the hurricane. The article talks about a recent deal the U.S. made with Puerto Rico to help give aid through means of a disaster loan. Initially the U.S. Congress allocated around $4.9 billion in loans for the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, however the Puerto Rico did not have access to this money. While the article did not address as to why Puerto Rico was not able to access these recovery funds, one would assume it has something to do with the billions of dollars of debt the island currently has, which led them to claim bankruptcy back in the summer of 2017. Despite the amount of debt the island has, they had reserves in the amount of $1.7 billion. When the U.S. Treasury and FEMA found this out they agreed to let Puerto Rico to have access to the disaster until March 2020, however only when Puerto Rico’s reserves dipped $1.1 billion. The announcement of the deal came after months of letters back and forth between Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rossello, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, when Mnuchin visited the island.
The long-disputed distribution of the funds for the island’s recovery seems reasonable in light of their recent status of filing for bankruptcy and the billions of dollars of debt they are currently in. As well as that, the island has cash reserves they did not disclose to the U.S. government, which would appear to be able to assist in recovery efforts meaning Puerto Rico may not need all of the money the U.S. was willing to let the island borrow. Unlike many of the other articles that discussed the recent negotiations between the U.S. and Puerto Rico, this article brought light to many of the issues that the two governments had that prevented Puerto Rico from borrowing the disaster loans from the U.S. Other articles made the U.S. out to be power hungry and unfair in not allowing the island to access large sums of money, however this article was clear in the conveying some of the reasoning behind why the U.S. had some reservations when the Puerto Rico asked for the money back in October 2017. The article did however, leave out that the U.S. and Puerto Rico still are having ongoing discussions as to whether the island will be allowed to be eligible for disaster loan forgiveness, that many other countries are eligible for, due to Puerto Rico’s mishandling of past government funds.
González, Joanisabel. “Mnuchin Reaches an Agreement with the Island.” El Nuevo Dia, 24 Mar. 2018, www.elnuevodia.com/english/english/nota/mnuchinreachesanagreementwiththeisland-2409091/.