Jenniffer González Colón says the drought still does not meet a federal major disaster

From New York, on August 25, 2026, Governor Jenniffer González Colón tells El Nuevo Día that the drought in Puerto Rico still does not meet the threshold of a federal major disaster. The interview, according to the outlet, was on MS Now. The argument the newspaper attributes to her is from the Stafford Act: local resources have not been exhausted. It is not a rain forecast. It is a position on which federal declaration is in order now.

The CRS, according to the same note, told her that, since 1980, the White House has not authorized a major disaster for drought in a state. That is the CRS reading El Nuevo Día attributes to her, not a tally of declarations built here. Jenniffer González Colón also says there are $9,000 million in federal funds to rebuild water. The figure is hers, published by the outlet. It is not turned here into an inventory of projects.

On August 14, Pablo José Hernández Rivera and 25 members of Congress asked her to seek that declaration from Donald J. Trump. On August 21, El Nuevo Día reported another letter from Pablo José Hernández Rivera, this time with nine members of Congress, to the federal Department of Agriculture: an agricultural emergency for 29 municipalities. On August 13, the same newspaper covered the expansion of extreme drought; on August 6, the extreme-drought declaration in portions of the south. Those are separate notes. This one does not collapse them into a single map.

Jenniffer González Colón is speaking from the investment tour. El Nuevo Día, a day earlier, had announced the economic cabinet's trip and Rosachely Rivera Santana as acting governor. Drought and Wall Street sit on the same public agenda that week. The outlet does not say that one cancels the other.

What is not in the August 25 note is not invented: no count of municipalities under rationing in this piece, and no White House yes or no. Pablo José Hernández Rivera asked; Jenniffer González Colón, on MS Now, holds that the major-disaster limit has not been reached. Both positions are named. A reader who wants the August 14 letter or the full interview has El Nuevo Día's URL at the foot.

Source: El Nuevo Día. https://www.elnuevodia.com/corresponsalias/washington-dc/notas/jenniffer-gonzalez-dice-que-la-sequia-en-puerto-rico-no-ha-alcanzado-el-limite-de-un-desastre-mayor-a-nivel-federal/