[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15842-15843]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       ASSISTANCE FOR PUERTO RICO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, a little over a month ago, Hurricane Irma 
struck the Caribbean island of St. Maarten very hard.
  Within a couple of days, I got a call from loved ones of a couple of 
constituents. They had family members trapped at a hotel in St. Maarten 
with dozens of other Americans. The power was out, they were running 
out of food and water, and incidents of looting were reported. So they 
called me, their Congressman, and I called the State Department to see 
what could be done.
  Within 36 hours of my call, our U.S. citizens--nearly 150 of them--
were evacuated from an island, in the ocean, surrounded by water.
  Do you know where they were taken to for safety?
  Puerto Rico. Yes, Puerto Rico, where it has now been 3 weeks since 
Hurricane Maria and most people do not have power or clean drinking 
water, and where the deterioration of the healthcare system is leaving 
people without critical treatments and causing the death toll to go up.
  Now, in St. Maarten, this is what the State Department said, 
according to NBC News: ``Evacuation efforts will prioritize U.S. 
citizens needing urgent medical care.''
  Within a few days, they had evacuated 1,200 Americans.
  So, right now, if a thousand U.S. citizens are facing danger in 
Japan, Ethiopia, or Finland, our State Department would arrange to save 
them. But we have millions of Americans facing danger in Puerto Rico 
and we can't get the same help, not from the military, not from FEMA, 
and not from the State Department, because they don't assist U.S. 
citizens who are on U.S. soil, even if that soil is a colony in the 
ocean surrounded by water, as our President reminds us.
  It took 36 hours to get evacuated from St. Maarten. Three weeks in 
Puerto Rico and still no plan for evacuation.
  This morning, the President is tweeting that he wants to pull FEMA 
and the military out of Puerto Rico.
  How long do we have to stay in Puerto Rico, Mr. President?
  Until every Puerto Rican's name is taken off the Vietnam Veterans 
Memorial Wall or erased from the records of the Korean war, 
Afghanistan, and Iraq. As long as it takes. They gave their lives and 
died.
  Yesterday, a lot of us received military briefings from FEMA, the 
military, and Homeland Security. I wanted to know whether FEMA and the 
military are prepared to take people off the island, as we normally do 
in emergency situations. We did it in Houston, in Jacksonville, and New 
Orleans.
  No, the Governor has not asked for help in evacuating people, they 
told me.
  I asked: How many bridges, even temporary ones, have been constructed 
in Puerto Rico to replace those destroyed by the hurricane to allow for 
the transportation of supplies and the evacuation of people?
  They said: None, Congressman. Zero. We have not erected any bridges. 
Again, because the Governor of Puerto Rico hasn't asked us to.
  When I was there, I flew over the town of Maricao in the mountains, 
well known for coffee. There are six ways in and out of the town, and 
five of those bridges are gone.
  Three weeks after D-day in 1944, the allies liberated the deepwater 
port of Cherbourg, one of the most important objectives in France. It 
took 20 days and we built bridges and communication lines along the 
way.
  We made better progress in the 3 weeks after D-day than we are making 
on Puerto Rico. And in Puerto Rico, to the best of my knowledge, there 
are no Germans shooting at us.
  Now, when I asked the officials about evacuating people from the 
island, they had no real answer. But if I remember correctly, FEMA and 
the military come to us to fund their budget every year. They are 
accountable to this Congress.
  We are accountable to our constituents. Constituents are coming to 
me, as they did in St. Maarten, and are saying: Help us get our 
families out of danger's way.
  Mr. Speaker, when will we be able to give these constituents an 
answer as to why their family members and loved ones aren't being 
allowed to leave the island and evacuated from danger?
  This weekend, Members of Congress are going to Puerto Rico. I spoke 
with a few of them and said: Hey, at night, you should go to this place 
where it is really bad.
  One stopped me, cut me off, and said: Congressman, we are not staying 
overnight.

[[Page 15843]]

  So, on an island where 95 percent of the power is out, our Members of 
Congress are only going to see things during the day, not during the 
pitch-black darkness, which is what Puerto Ricans are living with every 
single night for the last 3 weeks.
  Regardless of what my colleagues see during the day or what the 
President tweets in the morning, my friends stand in line for hours for 
food, if they can find it; my constituents are worried about their 
family members; and 5 million Puerto Ricans in the diaspora have run 
out of patience. We want our people free to live in the United States 
of America wherever they can.
  Mr. Speaker, my constituents want the government to help get their 
families out of danger's way.

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