Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he aims to wrap up negotiations today on a multi-billion dollar loan to Puerto Rico’s government that the territory’s leaders have complained is long overdue after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island in September, Bloomberg News reported. Mnuchin will hand-deliver documents related to the loan in his first visit to the territory as a public official, he said. “I’m meeting with them in case there are final issues that we need to negotiate — we are prepared to do that,” he said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg News. “I want to make sure that we fulfill the mandate from Congress to make sure that the loan facilities are in place.” Puerto Rico’s leaders have complained that Mnuchin’s department has slowed loans the territory needs to rebuild following the storm, which devastated the island. In February, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló said that Mnuchin was acting “recklessly” by delaying the territory’s access to a share of a $4.9 billion loan package that Congress passed in October.
