The Trump administration imposed severe restrictions on Wednesday on billions of dollars in emergency relief to Puerto Rico, including blocking spending on the island’s electrical grid and suspending its $15-an-hour minimum wage for federally funded relief work.

The nearly $16 billion in funding, released while Puerto Ricans still sleep on the streets for fear of aftershocks from last week’s earthquake, is part of $20 billion that Congress allocated for disaster recovery and preparation more than a year ago, in response to the commonwealth being hit by back-to-back hurricanes in 2017…

Representative Nydia M. Velázquez, Democrat of New York and the first Puerto Rican woman elected to the House, called the move disdainful and contemptuous.

“Why is Puerto Rico always subjected to different standards when it comes to this administration?” she demanded.