While donOLD wants to talke about withholding hurricane aid

Wednesday, October 02, 2024

The administration of former President Donald Trump obstructed an investigation looking into why officials withheld about $20 billion in hurricane relief for Puerto Rico following the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017, one of the deadliest U.S. natural disasters in over 100 years, a new report says. A Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General report made public Thursday also found that tensions between the department and the Office of Management and Budget resulted in unprecedented procedural hurdles that produced delays in the disbursement of the congressionally approved funds.

Posted by Nixon at 07:08 AM | 3 COMMENTS | permalink

It all started after 2018 when OMB began requiring HUD to send grant notices for disaster funds through an interagency review process for approval, making it hard for HUD to publish the notices needed to unlock funding in a timely manner. Investigators found that OMB had never before required such a review process for a notice allocating recovery funds.

Former HUD Deputy Secretary Brian Montgomery told investigators about a phone call he had with then-OMB Director Russell Vought in which Montgomery told Vought the actions from his office were equivalent to holding disaster-relief funds "hostage," according to the report.

Investigators said they were unable to obtain testimonies from officials who ordered the interagency review process. Former HUD Secretary Ben Carson and another former HUD official also declined to be interviewed by investigators.

Access to HUD information was delayed or denied multiple times throughout the course of the investigation, the report said, and several former senior administration officials at the OMB refused to provide requested information about their decision-making process in regard to the Puerto Rico relief funds.

However, investigators were able to interview 20 current and former HUD officials and two Puerto Rico housing officials.

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Seven months after the probe was launched, two top HUD officials admitted to knowingly missing the congressionally mandated deadline to issue a notice that would have unlocked billions in federal recovery funds to Puerto Rico. Carson later defended his agency's actions by echoing Trump talking points " citing concerns about corruption, fiscal irregularities and "Puerto Rico's capacity to manage these funds."

Throughout his term, Trump repeatedly opposed disaster funding for Puerto Rico while disputing and failing to acknowledge Maria's death toll. Trump had also told top White House officials "that he did not want a single dollar going to Puerto Rico," the Washington Post reported in 2019. "Instead, he wanted more of the money to go to Texas and Florida."

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Once again donOLD is lying that Biden is doing what he did.

#1 | Posted by Nixon at 2024-10-02 07:10 AM