2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 21 - Emergency Agencies (§§ 451 — 492) › § 459 - Emergency Fund—Use

The Emergency Fund shall be used to meet unexpected and unforeseen public needs caused by calamities such as wars, hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts, floods, and plagues, and for the purpose of protecting the life and property of the people, and the public credit, but nothing of the herein contained shall be contrued as allowing the use of the fund without the previous consent of the Legislature for new government activities, not to directly or indirectly increase or supplement appropriations voted on to meet ordinary services of the government except as otherwise provided by this chapter. The functions carried out by the Commonwealth Emergency Management and Disaster Administration Agency are hereby exempted from this limitation, since its operating expenses may be financed with the resources appropriated to said Fund. Provided, That the amount authorized for this purpose shall not exceed seven point five percent (7.5%) of the maximum balance of one hundred and fifty (150) million dollars of the Emergency Fund in each fiscal year, and shall be previously authorized through legislation to such effect. However, for Fiscal Year 2005-2006, the use of up to ten point five percent (10.5%) of the maximum balance of one hundred fifty (150) million dollars in the Emergency Fund is authorized as an exception for Fiscal Year 2005-2006, to cover the operating expenses of the Commonwealth Emergency Management and Disaster Administration Agency. This authorization is to the effect that the Commonwealth Emergency Management and Disaster Administration Agency may appropriate an item to cover the costs of the immediate activation of the seventy-eight (78) municipalities to the AEMEAD Automated Emergencies and Disaster Incidents Management System at a cost of three million five hundred thousand dollars ($3,500,000); to include the activation of the Puerto Rico Firefighters Corps to said System and for the acquisition of twenty thousand (20,000) cot type beds, in addition to those existing in the reserve of the Agency to tend to persons sheltered in emergency situations at a cost of one million dollars ($1,000,000). The Emergency Fund may also be applied to aid the United Stated and other countries in cases of unexpected and unforeseen disasters caused by calamities such as wars, hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts, floods, and plagues, and with the purpose of cooperating towards alleviating the consequences of said calamities among the population of said coutries. The aid to be sent to areas outside of Puerto Rico is limited in each case to the sum of twenty-five thousand (25,000) dollars, and in all cases, in devoting any sum of money to counteract the damages which may be suffered by the civilian population as a consequence of the causes herein specified, the fundamental purpose of the Legislature in creating the Emergency Fund shall be taken into account, and such purpose is conclusive to the effects that said fund be used in cases of public calamities or their prevention.
History —June 21, 1966, No. 91, p. 304, § 3; July 17, 2001, No. 57, § 1; Aug. 28, 2003, No. 222, § 2; Dec. 12, 2005, No. 150, § 1.