[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14995]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              PUERTO RICO IS FACING A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

  (Mr. ENGEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, the people of Puerto Rico are crying out for 
help, and these American citizens need America's help. Whenever there 
is a disaster anywhere in the country, we need to move fast. We moved 
fast when there was a disaster in Texas recently, which we unanimously 
supported.
  We cannot afford to wait. People are dying. Every day it gets worse. 
There is lack of food, lack of water, lack of safety, and lack of 
electricity. These are American citizens. We cannot just allow this to 
continue to happen.
  We must help the people of Puerto Rico and help the people in the 
U.S. Virgin Islands, who are also American citizens, as well as people 
in all of the islands.
  It is just a crisis of tremendous proportion, and we have to help--
not tomorrow, not next week, but immediately. These people need our 
help. We need to save Puerto Rico, save the U.S. Virgin Islands, and 
help and save the islands of the Caribbean, as we have done so many 
times around the world.
  Let's do it now. Let's do it quickly. People are waiting for us. We 
don't want to wait until people are dying.

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