[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2795]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 ISSUES CONCERNING VIEQUES, PUERTO RICO

  (Mr. ACEVEDO-VILA asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ACEVEDO-VILA. Madam Speaker, I want to recognize my constituents 
from Puerto Rico, many of them from Vieques, that have come to 
Washington to share with Members their concerns involving the U.S. 
Navy's bombing exercises on Vieques.
  For the last 60 years, the people of the island of Vieques have 
suffered from the Navy's bombing exercises. They have seen their 
children get ill and die of cancer and have suffered from numerous 
diseases. Residents of Vieques have a mortality rate 40 percent higher 
than that of Puerto Rico and a 27 percent higher risk of dying from 
cancer.
  This is a nonpartisan issue. In Puerto Rico, all political parties 
stand united. We welcome the support and commitment of Governor Pataki 
of New York and Governor DiFrancesco of New Jersey.
  Despite what my colleagues may have heard, our military preparedness 
does not rest in the balance of training at Vieques. Jack Shanahan, 
retired Admiral of the U.S. Second Atlantic Fleet, has stated that 
there are alternative sites and that training on Vieques is outdated. 
Further, we are encouraged by the Secretary of Defense's decision to 
suspend exercises that were scheduled to take place on Vieques in 
March.
  I stand here today to call on President Bush to order the permanent 
cessation of all bombing exercises on Vieques. Vieques is not a 
national security issue. It is a health and human rights issue. If 
compassion has any meaning, I cannot think of any more compelling case. 
I urge my colleagues to support our letter to the President.
  Elie Weisel said: Indifference reduces the other to an abstraction. 
The people of Vieques are very real and their suffering very concrete. 
Indifference on this issue is unacceptable.

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