117 HRES 1337 IH: Lauding Virgin Islanders for their perseverance, grit, and tenacity through major disasters attributable to Hurricanes Irma and Maria and Members of Congress for their support in accruing funding to support the Virgin Islands of the United States through these disasters. U.S. House of Representatives 2022-09-09 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IV117th CONGRESS2d SessionH. RES. 1337IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESSeptember 9, 2022Ms. Plaskett submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and InfrastructureRESOLUTIONLauding Virgin Islanders for their perseverance, grit, and tenacity through major disasters attributable to Hurricanes Irma and Maria and Members of Congress for their support in accruing funding to support the Virgin Islands of the United States through these disasters.

Whereas Hurricanes Irma and Maria, both Category 5 storms with wind gusts of up to 178 miles per hour at their centers, impacted the Virgin Islands of the United States within two weeks of each other on September 6 and September 20, 2017, and caused significant destruction to roofs, structures, foliage, and aerial power and phone lines leading to territorywide communications and power blackouts; Whereas the sweeping destruction to homes and public facilities including hospitals, schools, fire stations, utilities, and ports on St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John effectively stranded the entire population for weeks, leading to Virgin Islanders running boats between the islands of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico to assist with transportation of people and goods;Whereas Virgin Islanders became heroes delivering food and medical supplies while also leading cleanup initiatives, and remained strong in the face of the daunting task of rebuilding their lives;Whereas Members of Congress, including leadership and committee chairs, came in large numbers to the Virgin Islands to provide insight and support to the local government and people of the territory;Whereas the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (the Stafford Act) provides disaster assistance to States, Tribes, local governments, and certain private nonprofit organizations, and also declares a State to include the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands; andWhereas Members of Congress have shown enormous support and willingness to ensure that the people of the Virgin Islands receive the necessary funding provided through Acts of Congress and support through the Stafford Act to facilitate and expand the scope of recovery: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives—(1)lauds Virgin Islanders for their perseverance, grit, and tenacity through major disasters attributable to Hurricanes Irma and Maria upon the 5-year anniversary of these disasters, and Members of Congress for their support in accruing funding to support the Virgin Islands through these disasters;(2)has heard with gratitude of the acts of pride and care exhibited by the people of the Virgin Islands during these disasters and throughout the ongoing recovery from these disasters; and(3)affirms its commitment to support the people of the Virgin Islands as they continue to strive for a full and resilient recovery from these disasters.