Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will announce a $146 billion plan to help hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico in its continuing attempt to recover, The Washington Post reported.
The plan includes renewable power sources like solar and wind to provide as much as 70 percent of Puerto Rico's energy within a decade, the newspaper reported.
Sanders' bill also urges Congress to retire Puerto Rico's debt. It also would provide the island billions in federal funding for healthcare, transportation and education, according to the Post.
About $62 billion is allocated for the island to pay off its debt; $51 billion for economic development; $27 billion for infrastructure and billions for education and environmental remediation, the Post reported.
The bill also would provide money to the Virgin Islands, also devastated by Hurricane Maria in September.
"More than two months after Hurricane Maria, in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, most of the homes in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are still without electricity," Sanders said.
"This is beyond belief. Congress must work with the people of Puerto Rico to fundamentally transform its expensive, antiquated and unreliable system."
And Ramón Luis Nieves, a former member of the Senate of Puerto Rico added: "This is the closest we have to a Marshall Plan for Puerto Rico."
But the Post cautioned Sanders's bill is unlikely to get a vote in Congress. The newspaper noted it is far greater than $94 billion requested by Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló.
In an interview with NPR, Rosselló said efforts are underway to get most of the power on the island restored by Christmas.
"Our objective has always been by Christmas getting about 90, 95 percent of the energy grid back up," he said. "We've had several milestones along the way. We had 30 percent by the end of October. We met that. We had 50 percent by the middle of November. We met that. And now, of course, there is a huge effort so that we can meet our aggressive milestone."
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