COR3 delivers its tenth recovery report to Congress

On December 1, 2023, the Central Office for Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience (COR3) sent the U.S. Congress the Tenth Congressional Status Report on Puerto Rico’s Economic and Disaster Recovery Plan, titled “Rebuilding Puerto Rico: A Year of Progress and Compliance in Project Execution.” The report is filed under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.

COR3 reports that the federal government has allocated more than 83.8 billion to rebuild Puerto Rico after María — a 1.4 billion increase from the ninth report — across several agencies. FEMA leads with 47.3 billion allocated. Allocating is not the same as obligating or disbursing: the document separates those concepts.

On permanent work (outside the FAASt board), COR3 lists 3,998 projects under construction (2 billion), 12,221 damaged elements in planning (4.8 billion) and 2,231 completed permanent-work projects at a cost of 317 million, versus 1,502 (215 million) in the prior report. It also notes that more than 98% of FEMA funds approved for María were already obligated.

Under the FAASt strategy, FEMA had obligated 9.5 billion to PREPA, 3.7 billion to PRASA, 2.1 billion to the Department of Education and 554 million to the Public Housing Authority — about 15.7 billion in total FAASt. Those subrecipients had submitted 554 scopes of work; 3.4 billion of that package were already additionally obligated in validated SOWs (data as of September 30, 2023). Approved FAASt projects totaled 451 for 4.9 billion.

The report updates COR3’s strategic goals toward 2024, with emphasis on facilitating cost-share funds, accelerating permanent-work execution, mitigation (HMGP), and financial supports such as the RFCA. Completing a project or reporting a cost does not turn an obligation into a full disbursement or into theft: each figure in the report is labeled by stage.