How Trump can fix Puerto Rico’s broken infrastructure

The debate over Puerto Rico's infrastructure is ultimately a debate about governance legitimacy—who should make decisions for a territory that has no voting representation in the body that oversees its fiscal recovery. Fortuño's argument taps into a frustration shared across the political spectrum on the island: that the FOMB, created by Congress in 2016, has become a symbol of external control over local affairs. Whether one views the board as a necessary intervention to prevent fiscal collapse or as a colonial imposition, the practical results are difficult to defend. Nearly a decade after Hurricane Maria exposed the grid's fragility, residents still face rolling blackouts and unreliable power. The proposal to replace mainland members with local leaders raises a legitimate question: would local governance actually improve outcomes, or would it reintroduce the political dynamics that contributed to the original crisis? PREPA's bankruptcy was not merely a natural disaster story—it was decades in the making, fueled by mismanagement, political patronage, and underinvestment. Supporters of the current FOMB structure argue that the board's independence from local politics is precisely its strength, providing a check against the very incentives that created the debt crisis. Fortuño's position, however, reflects a growing bipartisan sentiment in Puerto Rico that the board has overstayed its usefulness. The island has emerged from bankruptcy, yet the board remains, and its mainland members continue to make consequential decisions with limited local input. For critics, this is less about competence and more about democratic accountability—the sense that Puerto Ricans are being governed by people who do not share their fate and cannot fully appreciate the daily consequences of infrastructure failure. What makes this story compelling beyond the island's borders is what it reveals about American federalism and territorial governance. The tension between federal oversight and local autonomy is not unique to Puerto Rico—it echoes debates over federal intervention in states, from education policy to emergency management. But the territorial status magnifies the stakes: there is no Senate vote, no presidential vote, no full representation to balance the power of a federal board. The question Fortuño implicitly raises is whether technocratic oversight can ever substitute for democratic legitimacy, and whether the answer to broken infrastructure is more local control or more effective federal partnership. Source: https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/6048289-trump-fomb-puerto-rico-electricity/