The U.S. government is refusing some of Puerto Rico’s requests for federal loan assistance, citing the U.S. territory’s “higher than expected” cash holdings since a devastating hurricane struck four months ago, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said on Jan. 9 that Puerto Rico appears to have too much money at its disposal to qualify for taxpayer-funded disaster loans and can only borrow federal dollars if its cash position falls below a certain level. Puerto Rico has “consistently” had upwards of $1.5 billion in the bank following Hurricane Maria, according to a FEMA decision letter reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Gov. Ricardo Rosselló had applied for potentially billions of dollars in federal financing to make up for a slowdown in tax collections and business activity following the storm, which wrecked Puerto Rico’s power grid and touched off a humanitarian crisis. More than a third of power customers in Puerto Rico still haven’t had service restored while thousands of residents have fled to the U.S. mainland.
