The House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing on June 25, 2019, titled, “Recovery, Resiliency and Readiness—Contending with Natural Disasters in the Wake of Climate Change.” This was the third in a series of hearings on climate change. Natural disasters have been greatly affected by climate change. Category 4 and 5 hurricanes are… Read more »
Seven Democratic senators sent a letter to Sonny Perdue, Secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, and Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, asking for an explanation of the delay in disbursing funds for nutrition assistance for Puerto Rico. Signers of the letter included Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Kirsten… Read more »
The Johnston family of J House Vlogs shares ordinary family life in Puerto Rico on their YouTube channel. Losing a drone in the rain forest, paddling into a bioluminescent bay, or hiking in a cave full of bats are adventures interspersed with grocery trips, kids’ games, and cooking. They describe themselves as “an imperfect family… Read more »
In 2016, there were three debates between the two nominees, 12 Republican primary debates, and 6 Democratic primary debates. Puerto Rico was not mentioned in any of the debates. In the first debate of the 2020 presidential race, Puerto Rico came up. Beto O’Rourke had answered a question about climate change, mentioning Miami and Houston… Read more »
Puerto Rico receives much less funding for healthcare than any of the 50 states, even though its needs are greater. In a Congressional hearing last week, Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) asked, “Why are the U.S. territories treated differently?” Dr. Anne L. Schwartz, the director of Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), responded that… Read more »
Medical care in the United States is expensive, compared to other nations. A study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, published in Health Affairs, found that Americans spend $9,892 per capita on healthcare costs each year, more than any other country in the world. This is not simply because Americans get more… Read more »
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-K) has faced criticism for mentioning Puerto Rico during an interview on Fox News last week. While coverage of McConnell’s remarks generally implies that McConnell said statehood would be the equivalent of socialism, a close listen shows a different intention on the Senator’s part. “They plan to make the District… Read more »
The UN Decolonization Special Committee will meet to consider the status of Puerto Rico on June 24, 2019. This committee, known as the Committee of 24 even though it now has 29 members, includes China and the Russian Federation as well as South American, African, and Caribbean nations. There are no members from Europe or… Read more »
The Walkway of the Presidents, or Paseo de los Presidentes, near the capitol building in San Juan is graced by nine bronze statues of presidents: the nine who visited Puerto Rico as sitting presidents. Built in 2010, the statue installation honors presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Barack Obama. From the 26th president to the 44th,… Read more »
A Congressional subcommittee will hold a hearing tomorrow at 10:30 am to examine health care funding in the U.S. territories. The hearing, which is entitled “Strengthening Health Care in the U.S. Territories for Today and Into the Future,” will cover Puerto Rico’s upcoming extreme loss of Medicaid funding, often referred to as the “Medicaid Cliff.”… Read more »
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