By The Star Staff
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia and island Housing Secretary William Rodríguez Rodríguez announced on Thursday that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) granted an extension for the use of recovery funds under the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program until Dec. 31, 2029.
“Since my administration began, I have made it a priority to expedite the reconstruction on our island. Thanks to the good relationship that my government has had with President Biden’s administration, we have managed to eliminate bureaucratic processes in the use of federal funds, which has allowed us to today have thousands of projects under construction and underway,” the governor said in a written statement. “I thank the federal Housing Secretary Marcia Fudge for working hand in hand with our Secretary William Rodríguez to achieve this extension. We will continue to expedite the projects we have underway and with this news we will ensure the maximum use of the funds available for reconstruction.”
The federal government had set a final date for the use of the funds in September 2026. Following a petition presented by the island Housing Department, the extension was granted.
Rodríguez stated that “we are grateful to the federal government for this extension that will undoubtedly help us continue the recovery process that we have been successfully leading.”
“This new extension is evidence of the federal government’s confidence in the management that this administration is carrying out and places us in a better position to complete the work of transforming Puerto Rico,” he added.
The extension will benefit the projects carried out by municipalities with recovery funds, as well as projects at the state level.
After hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, the Puerto Rico government had unrestricted access, facilitated by the Biden-Harris administration, to funds in 2021 to continue the implementation of more than 20 different programs approved in the Action Plan under recovery funds.
A few weeks ago, HUD Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman visited the island to observe first-hand the progress of the recovery work and after being pleased with what she saw, she said she took a positive view of an extension that would give continuity to the reconstruction process.
Meanwhile, the CDBG mitigation funds continue with 2032 as the expiration date.
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