Largest Ever Puerto Rican FEMA Infrastructure Grant Award Just Announced

• Author: Jacob Greene
• Posted: 2024-01-09

As a United States territory, Puerto Rico is technically eligible for all sorts of government grants. However, the small island region is often left out of many federal funding opportunities. In a record-making turn of events, they were just awarded a surprisingly large FEMA grant. This grant may finally help Puerto Rico start to recover following the devastation of Hurricane Maria.

FEMA Earmarks Grants for Puerto Rico

Following Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria in 2017, much of the region's buildings and infrastructure were entirely wiped out. At the time, the Trump administration was heavily criticized for providing little relief to United States citizens. Currently, there are still places without power from the devastating hurricanes. Finally, two years later, the region is getting the help it needs.

The funds have come about through the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. Part of this included funding for FEMA disaster responses, so it started the slow process of helping the island recover. Following the initial plan, budget makers then had to decide just how much of the funding would be allocated to Puerto Rico. After that, the funding then had to be heavily reviewed by various experts. Before things were finalized, it was validated by an independent expert review panel and agreed on by FEMA and Puerto Rico. After going through all of those hurdles, the grant funds were finally announced on September 18, 2020.

New Grants Break Records

Altogether, the grant money for Puerto Rico totals almost $13 billion. Since Puerto Rico is a territory instead of a state, they usually do not recieve much federal funding. Therefore, the newly announced FEMA grants are the largest FEMA grants that Puerto Rico has ever received before. They are also breaking records in another major category. These relief grants are also significantly higher than most other disaster recovery grants. Ultimately, only the Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy disaster relief grants were higher.

Grant Funding Will Go Towards Infrastructure Rebuild

Most of the funding will go towards rebuilding the island's infrastructure. $9.6 billion of the grants will go towards the Puerto Rico Electrical Power Authority. These funds will be used to replace the thousands of miles of downed transmission lines. It will also be used to build some new electrical substantive and power generation systems. According to the wording of the grant, the money can also go towards offices and other support staff needed to properly run and maintain the new power system.

A further $2 billion of grants will go to the Puerto Rico Department of Education. These grants are meant to help improve the educational facilities wiped out by the hurricanes. The focus will be on rebuilding schools and other educational facilities. With these funds, students in the region will finally be able to go back to school and focus on learning. Most of the grant money is specifically marked for power and education, but some of it is more discretionary. This money may be used for things like roads, utilities, and other critical infrastructure damaged by the hurricanes.

The language in the grant specifies that all new infrastructure must be built according to very strict standards. The area's power grid was already outdated before the storms struck which made it far more susceptible to hurricane force winds. Some of the grant money will specifically be used to update these older parts of vital infrastructure and make them more hurricane resistant. Hopefully, with more modernized infrastructure, the region will be able to better withstand future hurricanes.

Will the Grants Be Enough?

$13 billion dollars in grant money sounds like a massive amount, but sadly, it may not be enough. The amount of damage done by the hurricanes was truly astronomical. Puerto Rico's education secretary, Julia Keleher, estimates that at least $11 billion will be needed to bring all school buildings up to code. However, only $2 billion was available for the department of education at this time. After years of delays on providing federal relief, many areas of the island are struggling drastically. Though the relief grants will definitely provide assistance, many Puerto Ricans fear that true recovery is still a long way away.