Last Thursday, the House of Representatives passed its Fiscal Year 2018 budget. The U.S. Senate is considering its version of the spending legislation, and the two chambers of Congress are expected to iron out a compromise later this month. In an interview with Bloomberg, Budget Committee Chair Diane Black (R-TN) was asked about the cost of recovery for Puerto Rico.
When Chairman Black was asked about the need for better offsets for Hurricane hits, she responded that “we do need money to be set aside, a rainy day fund, need to put those dollars in the budget to anticipate disasters… I believe we need to do a better job to make sure we set dollars aside so that we have a rainy day fund for when these things happen.”
In estimating the cost for restoration and reconstruction for Puerto Rico at about $100 billion, Rep. Black was asked her opinion of where should that money come from. “I can’t really say at this point in time, that is a discussion we need to dig into… We need to look at flood insurance, is it working”, she responded, “Should we consider keeping rebuilding houses that keep getting flooded.”
