Fiscal board’s Mujica worries about federal funds clawback under a Trump presidency
By The Star Staff
Financial Oversight and Management Board Executive Director Robert Mujica says the board is concerned about the possibility that if elected, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump may claw back as yet unused federal funds given to Puerto Rico to deal with its disasters.
“It is something that we all have to be concerned about because if not, you are going to be very surprised,” Mujica said in an interview aired on journalist Jay Fonseca’s YouTube channel.
Mujica added that it is important to obligate the funds and to spend them.
“It is harder to claw back funds when contracts have been signed,” he said in the recent interview. “They are moving. … But if the money has been sitting there for years, you don’t have to worry about the president, Congress can act. It is something that is of concern.”
Mujica stressed the importance of speeding the pace in the use of the federal funds.
While Hurricane Maria in 2017, the January 2020 earthquakes and the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the distribution of federal funds and the reconstruction down, Mujica said that now it is time to double down.
In response to a question, he said the possibility of a clawback of federal funds, “is something that I have conversations [about].”
“When I have gone to Washington and expressed that … it is a real concern,” he said.
During Trump’s administration, from 2017 to 2021, he imposed certain restrictions on the use of federal Community Development Block Grant disaster funds to Puerto Rico. Financial data from the Central Office for Recovery, Reconstruction and Resiliency shows that of the estimated $40.1 billion assigned to Puerto Rico for its disasters, about $36.8 billion has been obligated, but just $9.8 billion has been disbursed.
