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Speaker Paul Ryan to visit Puerto Rico Friday

By on October 10, 2017

SAN JUAN – U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan will visit Puerto Rico Friday, Oct. 13, Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González announced.

The details of the visit are still being worked out, said the resident commissioner, who expects it will include a visit to a municipality in the island’s western region. Ryan will be accompanied by members of the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations, who are in charge of working on legislation to allocate federal government funds.

“These visits are important because, not only do they see the devastation, but also the need to immediately assign resources,” González said at a press conference in San Juan alongside Rep. Michael C. Burgess chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health subcommittee.

Lawmakers seek Puerto Rico exemption to law that slowed aid 

González said that since Friday is a voting day in Congress, the visit will be scheduled to depart from Washington, D.C. after that process.

“The goal is to head west and visit other areas, but we are still checking agendas,” she said.

González said Thursday that she participated in a roundtable discussion with members of the House Natural Resources Committee,  whose jurisdiction includes all matters concerning Puerto Rico. She said that in the meeting both she and U.S. Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett stressed the need to amend and eliminate the bureaucracy in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) claims to allow that process to be swift and effective.

“There is a committee working on which areas must be amended,” she added.

In the next few days, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on an emergency spending package that includes billions in relief for Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.

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