Kamala Harris announces plans to support Puerto Ricans

Harris detailed plans to create thousands of new jobs for Puerto Ricans, provide access to affordable housing, offer loans to small businesses, accelerate disaster recovery funds, and modernize the island’s electrical grid.

During a campaign stop Sunday in Philadelphia – which has the second-largest Puerto Rican population among US cities – Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris laid out a new policy proposal focused on Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans.

Stressing that her campaign has always been about “building coalitions,” Harris went on to further describe the “opportunity economy” for Puerto Rico she announced on social media earlier in the day.

“It’s about giving people access to opportunity, knowing that the people in all communities — in all communities — they want, yes, a job, but they want to be able to build wealth,” Harris said. “They want to be able to build intergenerational wealth, home ownership, small business growth, right? So, I call it an opportunity economy. The thing I mentioned this morning is I’m going to create basically an opportunity economy task force for Puerto Rico.”

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According to Harris, the Puerto Rico Opportunity Economy Task Force would foster economic growth and create thousands of new jobs. She also promised to accelerate disaster recovery funds and modernize the island’s electrical grid, which continues to experience daily outages.

“I will cut red tape to ensure disaster recovery funds are used quickly and effectively, and work with leaders across the island to ensure all Puerto Ricans have access to reliable, affordable electricity,” Harris said.

Harris’ plan also includes:

• Putting disaster relief funds to work more quickly and utilizing billions in funding that has been awarded for disaster recovery projects. This includes plans to support a modern, resilient grid that can better withstand future extreme weather events. 
• Providing access to housing that Puerto Rican families and workers can afford. Harris has promised to build 3 million new affordable homes across the US, including on the island. Under her plan, up to $25,000 in down payment assistance will be available for first-time and first-generation homebuyers. 
• Supporting Puerto Ricans’ equal access to federal support by asking Congress to grant equal access to federal programs that support health care, nutrition, and other critical needs for low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities. 
• Expanding the Child Tax Credit to up to $6,000 for parents of newborns and $3,000 to $3,600 per child ages 1-17, including for working and middle-class Puerto Rican families. 
• Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit to cover individuals and couples in lower-income jobs who aren’t raising a child in their home, a move that would cut their taxes by up to $1,500.
• Assessing the health care system in Puerto Rico to provide recommendations on how to strengthen it, including taking on the shortage of doctors and other health care professionals, addressing resource needs, and improving service delivery.
• Providing help to start and grow small businesses through a plan that will provide loans that are fully forgivable of up to $20,000 to Puerto Rican entrepreneurs, as well as others who have faced barriers to starting a new business or growing an existing business, in partnership with community banks and other trusted organizations. 
• Investing in minority-serving institutions like Puerto Rico’s colleges and universities, with a focus on building up the next generation of doctors, teachers, and more.

A show of respect 

“Throughout my career, I’ve always fought for the people of Puerto Rico,” Harris said in the video where she detailed her plan for the island. “Every chance he got, Donald Trump abandoned and insulted them.”

Just hours after Harris released her video, her opponent, Republican Donald Trump, held a rally at Madison Square Garden, where comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.”

His remarks came as Harris was speaking at a Puerto Rican restaurant in Philadelphia.

But Puerto Ricans may have the last word, if not the last laugh, in this election. Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes make it the largest swing state on the line this year. And the roughly 500,000 Puerto Ricans living in the Keystone State – the third largest concentration of Boricuas in the nation – could be one of the deciding factors in the most critical battleground state come Election Day.

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