This resolution commemorates the eighth anniversary of Hurricane Maria's devastation in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands while urging federal agencies to expedite recovery aid and prioritize resilient infrastructure development.
Pablo José Hernández Rivera
Representative
PR
This resolution commemorates the eighth anniversary of the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It honors the thousands of lives lost and acknowledges the ongoing struggles of survivors due to massive infrastructure failure. The bill strongly urges federal agencies to expedite recovery funding and calls on Congress to prioritize building resilient infrastructure for the territories' future.
Resolution Demands FEMA Speed Up Aid for Puerto Rico, USVI Recovery Eight Years Post-Maria
This resolution is a formal statement from the House of Representatives marking the eighth anniversary of Hurricane Maria, a storm that devastated Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2017. It’s not a law that creates new funding or mandates new programs, but rather a strong public push to honor the victims and survivors while demanding faster action on aid that has already been allocated. Essentially, Congress is using its voice to tell federal agencies to pick up the pace and get existing recovery money out the door.
The Lingering Shadow of Maria
To understand why this resolution matters, you have to look at the numbers cited in the text. Maria caused over 4,000 deaths in Puerto Rico and resulted in the longest blackout in U.S. history—nearly a year for some. The storm inflicted an estimated $115.2 billion in damage, wiping out 80% of the agricultural sector. For everyday people, this means eight years later, many are still dealing with the fallout: infrastructure remains fragile, and the healthcare system is chronically under-resourced. The resolution highlights that while FEMA and HUD have allocated over $43.4 billion for recovery, bureaucratic hurdles have caused significant delays in getting that money into community projects and people’s homes.
The Call to Action: Shifting Aid from Paper to Pavement
The core of the resolution is a direct message to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): speed it up. It urges the FEMA Administrator to accelerate the delivery of all necessary recovery funds to the territories. Think of it like this: the funds are in the bank account, but the resolution is the political pressure demanding the bank teller stop shuffling papers and start writing checks. For a small business owner in San Juan or a homeowner in St. Thomas waiting for rebuilding money, this political pressure could translate into months saved on a project timeline.
Building Back Better: The Resilience Mandate
Beyond speeding up current aid, the resolution calls on Congress and the Administration to make resilient infrastructure a top priority for these territories going forward. This isn’t just about fixing what broke; it’s about making sure the next storm doesn’t cause the same level of devastation. Specifically, the resolution asks for upgrades to the energy grid—a critical need, given the frequent outages since Maria—and improvements to healthcare facilities. For residents, this means a potential future where the lights stay on and critical medical services remain accessible during and after a natural disaster, addressing the underlying vulnerabilities that made Maria so catastrophic in the first place.