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Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) today requested Governor Ricardo Rosselló provide his office with additional information regarding Puerto Rico’s central cash balances. The letter is follow-up on a previous request sent to Governor Rossello in January. According to Rubio, “it is clear that this information continues to be crucial to Puerto Rico’s access to the Community Disaster Loan (CDL) program.”
The full text of the letter is below:
Dear Governor Rosselló:
I write to respectfully follow-up on my previous letter requesting additional information regarding the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico’s current cash balances, which to date has not yet received a response. In light of your recent letter to congressional leadership, it is clear that this information continues to be crucial to Puerto Rico’s access to the Community Disaster Loan (CDL) program, to which Congress appropriated nearly $5 billion this past October.
On February 26, you sent a letter to House and Senate leaders alleging that the U.S. Department of Treasury has arbitrarily imposed restrictions on Puerto Rico’s access to the CDL program, in contravention of congressional intent. According to the letter, “Puerto Rico, through no fault of its own, and as a direct result of the [U.S. Treasury’s] misguided delay and policy decisions contrary to Congressional intent and the spirit of the CDL program, presently risks near term interruption of its electric, utility, and water/sewage facilities.”
If in fact the U.S. Treasury is operating as you have stated, this is a very serious matter which will require immediate and aggressive congressional intervention and oversight. Which is why I again write to ask for more detailed information about the actual state of Puerto Rico’s central cash balances. Specifically, I ask you to provide my office:
1. A copy of all the information your Administration has submitted to Treasury regarding its CDL request, including information about the central government’s current cash balances;
2. A copy of the CDL terms and conditions you received from the U.S. Treasury on February 20, 2018;
3. A detailed analysis regarding the availability of the $6.875 billion recently found in hundreds of government bank accounts, including information specifying amounts that you have concluded to be “unavailable as a result of ongoing litigation, have restricted uses under federal or Puerto Rico law (such as federal funds and debt reserve accounts), or are deposited by entities that are legally separate from the Commonwealth and cannot be readily accessed.”; and
4. A detailed analysis of PREPA’s current General Fund cash balance.
I would like to provide assistance in resolving this matter to the satisfaction of the millions of American citizens who call Puerto Rico home. However, I can only do so if equipped with sufficient information upon which I can advocate for your position.
As we mark six months since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, I would like to reiterate my continued commitment to assisting the island’s efforts to recover and rebuild.