HUD inspector general's office says it'll look into whether White House interfered with Puerto Rico
Source: Washington Post
By Jeff Stein, Tracy Jan and Josh Dawsey March 26 at 3:42 PM
The inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development will review whether the White House has interfered with hurricane relief funding approved for Puerto Rico, an island still trying to recover from the impact of Hurricane Maria in 2017, as part of a broader examination of the agency’s administration of disaster grants, a HUD inspector general attorney said Tuesday.
Jeremy Kirkland, counsel to the HUD inspector general’s office, told a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee that the inspector general is meeting congressional lawmakers’ request to probe if the Trump administration has slowed the flow of aid to the island.
“We are in the process of looking into whether there has been any interference and do plan to report back to Congress on what we find‚” Kirkland said in response to questions from Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the committee’s chairwoman, later adding that a team of agents and attorneys is looking into the matter. “I know our folks are out there right now doing that.”
His remarks come as a bipartisan group of lawmakers is looking into broader delays in the spending of federal aid for a number of regions struck by natural disasters, including Texas and Florida. On Monday, the Government Accountability Office published a report finding that the federal government has been “slow” to get block grants to areas struck by disasters.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/03/26/hud-inspector-generals-office-says-itll-look-into-whether-white-house-interfered-with-puerto-rico-disaster-aid/
Full title: HUD inspector general’s office says it’ll look into whether White House interfered with Puerto Rico disaster aid
Related: Disaster Recovery: Better Monitoring of Block Grant Funds Is Needed (GAO)
