Washington, March 13 (RHC)-- Nearly 1.5 million Puerto Ricans are seeing cuts to their food stamp benefits, including hundreds of thousands of children and elderly people.  The Donald Trump administration has refused to extend additional emergency disaster funding for the island, as residents recover from 2017’s devastating hurricanes. 

A plan that would increase food stamp benefits has received bipartisan backing, but it’s unclear when or if the legislation will pass.  The Washington Post reported Trump told White House officials in September he thought Puerto Rico was misusing federal funds and that he wanted to withhold any additional recovery assistance from the island.

Senator Bernie Sanders condemned the cuts, tweeting: “Puerto Rico needs food assistance funding due to the hurricanes which devastated the island.  Some 1.4 million U.S. citizens will face large cuts to their food assistance benefits, 230,000 will lose the benefits entirely.  We must act now to end this crisis.”