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




            STRUGGLES IN PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN ISLANDS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Brown) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, it is hard to tell where and in 
what direction Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are heading today. 
There is not enough food, millions are struggling to live without 
drinking water and electricity, and only 8 percent of the roads are 
open to traffic.
  Containers with supplies, medical supplies, and food and other 
commodities are sitting in containers on the docks in the Port of San 
Juan and are not moving towards the people and the communities that 
need them the most. Struggles in the Virgin Islands are less heard 
about but no less real.
  The question is whether we, as a nation, are doing all we can for the 
citizens of this Nation. Let's compare. After an earthquake hit Haiti 
in 2010, where the infrastructure was severely damaged, the U.S. 
military mobilized as if we were going to war.
  The very next morning, after the earthquake hit, an Army unit was 
airborne. Within 2 weeks, 33 ships and 22,000 soldiers had arrived, and 
more than 300 helicopters were delivering millions of pounds of food 
and water, not just to the port, but the people of Haiti.
  By contrast, today, there are fewer than 14,000 military personnel 
assisting in relief efforts in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and 
there are only 88 helicopters and only 4 naval ships, one of them the 
USNS Comfort that are aiding 3.5 million Americans--3.4 million 
Americans in Puerto Rico, 100,000 Americans in the Virgin Islands.
  In Haiti, Mr. Speaker, we airlifted 15,000 U.S. citizens in 2010 
after the earthquake, but in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, we are 
unwilling to evacuate a single American, even those who have relatives 
and friends in the many communities across the 50 States of this great 
country.
  As Americans are starving and Americans are desperate, our response 
needs to be more vigorous.
  Now, let's be sure, the military is doing what we are asking them to 
do. This is not a criticism of the military not doing what we are 
asking them to do, but the White House is not asking the military to do 
enough.
  Mr. Speaker, the President must lead on this issue. We have got 
dedicated members of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast 
Guard who are willing, ready, and able to be in Puerto Rico and the 
Virgin Islands to deliver the relief to our neighbors and our citizens.
  We need to ask the Department of Defense to send more engineers, more 
transportation companies, and expeditionary sustainment battalions.
  Yesterday, I asked a senior military leader: How many pontoon bridges 
have been erected in Puerto Rico to cross those washed out roads? Zero. 
How many miles of power transmission lines have been reestablished to 
get electricity out to more communities? The answer is zero.
  We have military engineers on the ground, but they have not been 
asked to do that. We need to direct our military to provide the direct 
services on the local or, in military parlance, on the tactical level. 
I am not talking about long-term rebuilding of Puerto Rico and the 
Virgin Islands by the United States military. I am talking about 
directing the Department of Defense to establish the minimum 
infrastructure necessary to do the job that we should be asking them to 
do, which is to provide relief to 3.5 million Americans in Puerto Rico 
and the Virgin Islands. Strategic movements are good, military 
assessments and evaluations help, but what is needed is no less than 
what was done 7 years ago in Haiti.
  Mr. Speaker, the President must lead on this issue, and the President 
must ask our military to do more.

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