Vice President Mike Pence pledged that the federal government will continue providing assistance to Puerto Rico until the hurricane-ravaged island has fully recovered, saying there is still “a long way to go,” Bloomberg News reported on Friday. “We will be here for the long haul. We will be here until all the people can say with one voice ‘Puerto Rico se levanta. Puerto Rico is rising’,” Pence said on Friday during a visit to Iglesia Santa Bernadita, a church in San Juan. Pence, traveling to Puerto Rico two days after President Donald Trump visited with hurricane survivors and federal relief personnel, praised the government effort to provide food and resources to residents. Pence also said he “had faith” in Puerto Rico’s governor and local leaders. Trump criticized the mayor of San Juan after she complained of inefficiency in the federal response. The federal board overseeing Puerto Rico’s troubled finances has cited estimates that the massive rebuilding effort needed could cost as much as $95 billion, roughly 150 percent of the island’s economy.
