[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 153 (Thursday, September 13, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H8173-H8174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S DISASTER RESPONSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Madam Speaker, before I respond to President Trump's 
claim that the rescue and recovery effort in Puerto Rico a year ago 
after Hurricane Maria was ``one of the best jobs that's ever been 
done,'' I want to make a few things clear.
  First of all, everyone is praying for our friends and neighbors along 
the eastern seaboard who will be facing the wind and rain of Hurricane 
Florence today. I support them and the first responders who are helping 
and the people running shelters and delivering medicine to the sick and 
the injured; and I fully support FEMA, Homeland Security, and State and 
local governments for what they are doing, especially the brave men and 
women on the front line in harm's way today.
  Secondly, in the last few weeks, the official death toll of Hurricane 
Maria was raised to 3,000 based on a meticulous study by George 
Washington's Milken Institute of Public Health, and the number is based 
on facts and the truth. More people died in Hurricane Maria in Puerto 
Rico than died in Hurricane Katrina and that died in the attacks on 
September 11.
  That is not fake news, Mr. President.
  The temptation is to fault FEMA and the job they did in Puerto Rico. 
I want to make clear, individuals at FEMA and FEMA as an agency did 
heroic work in Puerto Rico, and FEMA continues to do that work.
  I flew with FEMA pilots 10 days after the storm hit, and I saw their 
work up close. It is clear that they saved lives.
  But let me also be very, very clear. With 3,000 people dead, for the 
President to say that Puerto Rico was a success, a triumph of his 
Presidency, is simply delusional.
  Only in the President's mind could he give himself an A-plus. Only in 
the President's mind could we go a year without an apology to the 
American people for his incompetence in managing a crisis where 3,000 
people died, Mr. President. And now he denies that they are even dead.
  It takes a man of humility, honor, and compassion to admit when he 
has made a tremendous and deadly mistake in caring for the American 
people; and we know we do not have a man in the White House who is 
capable of such emotions of empathy, of basic human decency.
  This Congress has failed to provide any meaningful oversight for fear 
they might embarrass the President with the facts.
  Thursday will mark 1 year since the storm hit, and think back a year 
ago. The popular and charismatic mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, 
called for help on national TV, saying people are dying. The President 
had a meltdown because he doesn't like being criticized by women, so 
the mayor's words were more than the President could take.
  Most of us knew at the time, and all of us know now a year after the 
storm, the mayor was right and the President was wrong. People died. He 
was dead wrong.
  Disasters require preparedness and rapid response, but FEMA was not 
fully prepared, and they were not fully supported in the rapid response 
by the Trump administration, which was then and is now a disorganized 
mess. And we don't need Bob Woodward to tell us that.
  Yes, the massive power of the storm was compounded by decades of 
neglect from Washington, which contributed to the debt crisis and 
infrastructure collapse. And to be clear, Puerto Rico's problems didn't 
happen overnight and didn't happen on President Trump's watch. But let 
us also be clear, it is his watch now.
  As President of the United States, he is responsible for Puerto Rico, 
a U.S. territory that belongs to, is a possession, property of the 
United States of America.
  Yes, islands are surrounded by water, Mr. President--in the case of 
Puerto Rico, deep water--but FEMA and Homeland Security never called 
the most powerful military in the world, the U.S. military, which has 
capabilities and capacities well beyond those of FEMA.
  From the beginning, the President's focus was on damage control from 
a political standpoint, not damage control

[[Page H8174]]

from a human life standpoint. The sad truth is that, in trying so hard 
to make sure that the hurricane didn't become ``Trump's Katrina,'' we 
lost far more lives. This was a disaster mismanagement, and that lies 
at the feet of the President and his administration.
  What is offensive to many of us is that, even though the President 
dropped the ball, he is now doing a victory dance in the end zone--or 
should we call it the dead zone.
  I pray that his response to the current disaster unfolding along the 
East Coast will be better and more empathetic. He has a golf club in 
North Carolina and a winery in Virginia, so maybe the American people 
in those States will get more of the President's help than my fellow 
Puerto Ricans did. And I pray the response is more successful.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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