Vice President Kamala Harris plans to visit Puerto Rico on Friday even as she and President Joe Biden struggle to keep their promises to the disaster-torn island.
The White House said Harris plans to do so Highlight how Biden’s agenda helped bring good jobs to Puerto Rico even as they face basic infrastructure problems.
Puerto Rico suffered catastrophic damage from 2017’s Hurricanes Irma and Maria and earthquakes in 2019 and 2020. Although record levels of reconstruction funding have been reached for the island, many of the funds remain stuck in a bureaucratic deadlock.
Only eight percent of the $23 billion in available federal funds has been spent on reconstruction. according to to a Government Accountability Office audit published in February 2024.
Vice President Kamala Harris plans to visit Puerto Rico on Friday
In 2020, Kamala Harris promised a “more compassionate” response on the island to help rebuild infrastructure
The report noted that “a significant amount of permanent work remains” on the island and that Puerto Rico had spent only $1.8 billion of the allocated funding. Much of the funding requires FEMA approval to be spent.
The island continues to suffer from rolling electricity outages as permanent upgrades to the electricity grid are still not completed.
According to figures, electricity generation in Puerto Rico has only deteriorated in recent years reportsfrom 52 percent to 42 percent capacity.
Harris’ visit comes as Democrats desperately want to maintain their hold on the Latino demographic ahead of the 2024 elections.
A CBS news from February poll showed that Biden’s support among Hispanics has fallen 12 points since 2020, from 65 percent to 53 percent.
White House Communications Director Brian Fallon shared a social media news story on Friday highlighting the political calculus behind the trip as a way to “reach Latino voters.”
Senator William Villafañe, a member of the New Progressive Party, said Harris’ visit was “remarkable” and “long overdue” but that “mere recognition is not enough.”
Villafañe told DailyMail.com that Puerto Rico residents remain disadvantaged and do not have access to government welfare programs such as Medicare Part B enrollment, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Medicare Extra Help for prescriptions, while at the same time suffering an exodus of doctors from the region. island due to lower government reimbursement rates.
“This visit should serve as a wake-up call for bipartisan action to hold the government accountable and deliver tangible solutions that prioritize the well-being of all American citizens, including those in Puerto Rico,” he said.
He also promoted the island’s statehood law, which he said was crucial for the people of Puerto Rico.
“Puerto Rico has voted three times to become a state. The Administration and Congress must take action to ensure equal protection and equity in all federal programs,” Villafañe said.
Harris’ visit comes ahead of Puerto Rico’s 2024 Democratic presidential primary, which will be held on April 28.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, both Biden and Harris accused former President Donald Trump of failing to help the island recover, promising a more compassionate and competent response.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has made several trips to the island to promote green energy projects in Puerto Rico.
Earthquake damage in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 2020
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has focused on making the island’s power grid 100 percent clean energy by 2050
Granholm is focused on the island’s goal of making its power grid 100 percent clean energy by 2050, even as existing fossil fuel generation infrastructure suffers.
“Despite, and because, and amid the heartbreak, Puerto Ricans also saw a great opportunity to build a new energy system that was resilient, independent and clean,” she said during a visit to San Juan, Puerto Rico in February.
The vice president’s visit will mark three and a half years since she wrote a letter op-ed as the Tampa Bay Times promises “a full recovery and rebuilding of Puerto Rico’s resilient infrastructure.”
“We see you, we hear you, and every day we stand by your side,” Harris promised, adding that she and Biden would “undo the damage left three years after Hurricane Maria and will help usher in a better future.”
Writer Susanne Ramirez de Arellano described Harris’ visit as “a farce and political theater for Puerto Ricans like me who live on the island.” column for the Bloomberg advice.
She argued that Harris was not there to help the island, but to motivate millions of Puerto Rico residents who had moved to key swing states on the mainland.
Carlos Mercader, the former executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration who lives in Puerto Rico, said Harris’ visit would be “irrelevant” to the election.
“She is not popular with Hispanics, including the Puerto Rican community,” Mercader told DailyMail.com. “The only place this could have an impact is in Central Florida and I expect it to happen the same way it did in 2022, where most Puerto Ricans who voted supported conservatives, as in Rubio and DeSantis.”
Mercader now hosts a show focusing on local and national issues important to Puerto Rico from a conservative political perspective.
Edwin Francisco, the president of the Young Republican Federation of Puerto Rico, acknowledged that Harris’ visit was important but argued that it was more of a “political stunt.”
“She will be in Puerto Rico in six hours and she will forget Puerto Rico, as the Biden administration did when he was in Florida on the 2020 presidential campaign in support of Statehood,” he said.
Francisco defended the Trump administration’s response to Hurricane Maria, noting that it spent the largest amount of federal funds on rebuilding Puerto Rico. He was not convinced that Harris’ visit would actually make a big difference on the island.
“The vice president’s standard operating procedure is to visit, wave and smile, but accomplish nothing,” he said.
