Puerto Rico in Distress

ABI Analysis

Puerto Rico’s federal oversight board hired two firms to lobby in Washington, D.C., for policies that will help pull the bankrupt island out of a decade-long recession, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. Williams & Jensen and Off Hill Strategies will push for policy changes at the White House and in Congress, according to contracts posted on the board’s website.

House lawmakers unveiled a bill yesterday that would provide $36.5 billion in emergency funding for hurricane and wildfire relief requested by the Trump administration, Bloomberg News reported.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló is asking Congress to consider providing about $1.4 billion in funding beyond the Trump administration’s request last week to help the U.S. territory recover from Hurricane Maria, The Hill reported today.

Vice President Mike Pence pledged that the federal government will continue providing assistance to Puerto Rico until the hurricane-ravaged island has fully recovered, saying there is still “a long way to go,” Bloomberg News reported on Friday. “We will be here for the long haul. We will be here until all the people can say with one voice ‘Puerto Rico se levanta.