Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for Roll Call vote 642 on Thursday, November 30, 2017. Had I been present, I would have voted Yea on Roll Call vote 642.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House Chamber for Roll Call votes 638 and 639 on Tuesday, November 28, 2017. Had I been present, I would have voted Yea on Roll Call vote 638 and Nay on Roll Call vote 639.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for roll call votes 623, 624, and 625 on Monday, November 13, 2017. Had I been present, I would have voted ``Yea'' on roll call vote 624, and ``Nay'' on roll call votes 623 and 625.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House Chamber for Roll Call votes 623, 624, and 625 on Monday, November 13, 2017. Had I been present, I would have voted Yea on Roll Call votes 623 and 624, and Nay on Roll Call vote 625.

Mr. Speaker, Monday I returned from my third trip to Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria devastated the island almost 2 months ago.

I wish I could report that a lot of progress is being made, but I can't. It is still a disaster, and it is a stain on the reputation of the United States of America.

Most places don't have power. Generators, the sound you hear humming in every corner of the island like metallic coquis, are running ragged from overuse.

In many places, the water is not on because the power is not on to pump it, and drinkable water mixes with sewer water all over the island. As you can see from this picture, people are tapping mountain springs and, in this case, are using it mostly for laundry, thank goodness, because the mountain water in many cases is contaminated from humans and animals.

This man is a police officer, first responder, but he is learning to make do just like every other Puerto Rican family. Everywhere you go, you see Puerto Ricans making do.

So think about your life without power, cell service, water, lights, fans, in some cases food. Imagine the dialysis patient or the elderly man in an electric wheelchair who uses oxygen tanks to breathe. I met those people in Puerto Rico.

How do you get to physical therapy or regular prenatal visits when there are still roads and bridges that have simply vanished?

On the one hand, when I am in Puerto Rico, I am confronted by the very best of mankind, the people who are helping strangers, feeding their neighbors, and pitching in wherever they can.

On the other hand, when I am in Puerto Rico, I am confronted with the human tragedy of people who, like all of us, depend on the government for basic assistance and help after a major disaster and have received nothing.

Yes, the damage is massive, but there is no task Americans cannot accomplish if we put our minds and backs into it.

Mr. Speaker, this is the Head Start building in Loiza. As you can see, the roof is torn up and there is metal sheeting that was blown around. The people in Loiza are forming a brigade to rebuild the structure so they can reopen the Head Start building.

One of the things I was doing in Loiza was bringing money to get them started, raised by the Puerto Rican Agenda in Chicago from the people of Chicago. Individuals in Chicago are investing in the well-being of people in Loiza. They have never met them, but they are investing in them.

They are not calling in expensive contractors or companies from Montana, and they are not waiting for the folks from FEMA or the U.S. military. They are not waiting for Donald Trump to grant Puerto Ricans a little more time now that he has made it clear that he will not personally give them his grade A help forever. Nope. The people of Chicago are getting help to the people of Puerto Rico before any official resources are coming to their rescue.

It boggles the mind that it has come to this.

Here is another more difficult case. A bridge and a road were washed away by the storm. This is near Jayuya, Puerto Rico, but it could be almost anywhere on the island. More than 6 weeks after the storm and nothing, not even orange cones or a guardrail to keep people from driving off into danger.

If you live up the side of this hill, you are not going anywhere any time soon until something changes, because the Army Corps of Engineers has decided just to not show up and are missing in action.

Mr. Speaker, I should not have to give this speech almost 2 months after the storm. We should have accomplished much more. The people of Puerto Rico pretty much understand that President Trump doesn't want to help them and really doesn't care.

The passports and documents that they have that say citizens of the United States should have been printed with small print that says: Yes, Puerto Ricans are citizens of the U.S. for the purposes of being drafted and going to war, but not when it comes to being helped.

Puerto Ricans are coming to grips with how little they can expect from the President and his administration.

They are finding ways to make do, just as the people of Chicago are making do by sending their own help in their own way. It shouldn't have had to come to this, but it has.

Puerto Ricans are learning to make do, just like these two young women who are getting married on the beach in Vega Alta, Cerro Gordo. I met them. They let me take this picture.

Life goes on, even when the government has turned its back on them.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for Roll Call votes 607, 608, and 609 on Monday, November 6, 2017. Had I been present, I would have voted Yea on Roll Call votes 607 and 608, and Nay on Roll Call vote 609.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for votes on Friday, November 3, 2017. Had I been present, I would have voted Yea on Roll Call vote 605 and Nay on Roll Call vote 606.

I was absent in the House Chamber due to travelling to the devastated island of Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. A vote was called on the floor for H.R. 3922 to reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program and other public health initiatives under the Affordable Care Act. I would have voted Nay on this legislation because this bill would raise premiums for seniors, limit benefits for Medicaid recipients and slash grace periods from 90 days to 30 days, which would result in thousands of Americans losing their healthcare. Furthermore, this bill funds a mere $1 billion dollars to Puerto Rico in the midst of a dire crisis on the island.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for Roll Call vote 591 on Tuesday, October 31, 2017. Had I been present, I would have voted Yea on Roll Call vote 591.

Mr. Speaker, there is something fishy about the Whitefish Energy deal that was reported in The Washington Post.

Whitefish Energy, based in Whitefish, Montana, was awarded a $300 million contract to repair and replace the electrical grid in Puerto Rico. We learned that the company is 2 years old and, as of about 6 weeks ago, had just two employees. It does not have a track record of working on massive projects, certainly not one as massive as rebuilding the power grid in Puerto Rico after a once-in-a-century storm like Hurricane Maria.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority did not solicit bids for this contract. They did not do what most power utilities do under these circumstances, which is rely on mutual assistant relationships with other power companies.

In Florida and in Texas--and in Illinois, for that matter--after a big storm, power companies from around the country send linemen and other workers to assist the local company. But that is not happening here. The Florida Power and Light Company brought in 20,000 workers after Irma and, apparently, was willing to send workers to Puerto Rico and help, but the request for help never came.

So what is going on here?

A tiny company that does not have a track record gets one of the biggest contracts to help rebuild Puerto Rico in a no-bid, out-of-the- ordinary contracting procedure.

That is why I wrote yesterday to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray, because I want them to investigate this deal, how it was awarded, why this company got the contract, and whether there is any evidence of it being a sweetheart, corrupt deal to boost business allies and political allies of the President and members of his Cabinet.

I also plan to bring this issue up to the Oversight Committees in this body.

On the surface, the Whitefish Energy deal looks fishy, but when you look a little deeper, the Whitefish Energy deal looks corrupt.

Whitefish Energy is based in Whitefish, Montana. Guess what. That is the hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who used to represent Montana in this body. His son even worked for the company. The chief executive of Whitefish Energy, Andy Techmanski, knows Secretary Zinke; but as a spokesperson for the Interior Department said yesterday, in Whitefish, ``everybody knows everybody.''

Guess what. That doesn't make me feel any better about the deal.

Go a little deeper and you find out that Whitefish Energy is financed by HBC Investments, which is a private equity firm founded by Joe Colonnetta, who holds the title of general partner.

The Daily Beast reported that Colonnetta gave $20,000 to the Trump Victory PAC, maxed out on contributions to Trump for his Presidential campaign in the primaries and general elections, about $32,000, then another $30,000 that he gave to the Republican National Committee. Kimberly Colonnetta, his wife, was also a maximum donor, meaning she gave the maximum allowed by law during the 2016 election to Trump and his various committees.

Now, please look here, and the pictures are right off the Internet. They certainly add additional evidence to the idea that Whitefish and the Colonnettas are pretty chummy with our President and his Cabinet. Right here is Mr. Colonnetta with the President of the United States, the two Colonnettas at the inauguration, and a picture of Mrs. Colonnetta with Ben Carson, one of the President's Cabinet members.

Don't forget, all you kids out there watching at home on C-SPAN, what you post on Facebook stays there forever.

Now, I know that not everything that looks corruption is in fact corruption. Sometimes what looks fishy on the surface turns out to be legit, but most of the time, you know what, it turns out to be corruption.

The reason this matters so much is that, without electricity, we can't get water restored to the people of Puerto Rico. Water doesn't flow uphill without pumps, and those pumps need power. You cannot live without water; you die. Dialysis machines, electrical wheelchairs, refrigeration for baby formula, insulin for diabetics, chemotherapy for those with cancer all require electricity. It is a matter of life and death.

I was just there and saw the suffering of the people in the villages and towns across the island of Puerto Rico. Without electricity, we cannot get Puerto Ricans back to work rebuilding their island and beginning to end the suffering.

Look, the last thing we and the people of Puerto Rico need right now is a fat cat lining his pockets with money because they are well connected.

That money should be saving lives, not ending them.

That is why I demand the FBI and the Attorney General investigate.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for Roll Call votes 569, 570, and 571 on Monday, October 23, 2017. Had I been present, I would have voted Yea on Roll Call votes 569 and 570, and Nay on Roll Call vote 571.

Mr. Speaker, shortly after the President returned from his trip to Puerto Rico, I received a shipment in my office of paper towels. It didn't come with a note or an explanation, just 12 rolls of Viva. I guess there is a little irony maybe because it is in Spanish.

Maybe after watching the President entertain himself by tossing paper towels at hurricane victims in Puerto Rico, some well-intentioned person thought that giving paper towels to Puerto Ricans was an appropriate sign of respect--the gift you give to Puerto Ricans after a major disaster trying to cheer us up, Viva.

Having returned from my second trip to Puerto Rico since the hurricane, I can tell you one thing for sure: we need a lot more than paper towels from the President and this Congress.

This is Loiza. I was visiting with the mayor. I want you to look at the pictures. This woman here, she has a disabled adult sleeping on a wet mattress. Yes, sleeping on a wet mattress. That is the home in which she takes care of her son. Four weeks after the hurricane, children hiding behind barricades, homes destroyed.

This is Comerio where food, 4 weeks after the hurricane, because there is no food, has to be handed neighborhood to neighborhood, hilltop to hilltop, hamlet and village to village within the town.

See this? People sleep there on that bed without tarps because somehow we forgot that in a hurricane-destroyed society it might have-- be a good idea to have something over your head. Of course, the President said he gave himself a 10. Tell that to the people who have lived there 4 weeks.

I just came back from this trip on Saturday. I am now not surprised that the congressmen, my colleagues, are taking day trips to Puerto Rico. Yes, that is what we do as Members of Congress, we get there at 9 o'clock during the Sun of the day, and we leave by 4 before the darkness comes because, of course, there is no electricity, and then they take us on a helicopter ride around the island. That is no way to visit.

You get off the plane and off the helicopter and you stay overnight when it is pitch black because that is the way 3.4 million American citizens live 1 month after the hurricane. That is how they live. So I don't know, maybe congressmen should stop taking day trips where they get there at 9 and leave by 4. Spend the night, get out of your comfort, and go talk to the American citizens that you are supposed to be representing.

America, see this? That is a horse stable, abandoned house where people live. I met a 13-year-old girl there with her mom and her 12- year-old brother. That is where they live. See this mom and the two children? No roof over their heads. Just a little tarp to keep one part of their house and no place to sleep.

See this man right here? He lives in this abandoned house in a little tent with a 2-month-old child and his wife, disabled in a wheelchair, and no electricity to run his air tank so that he can get the vital air that he needs to sustain his life.

This is what I saw, and this was without the help of the Federal Government because, if you ask for help, they will put you on a helicopter and take you on a nice tour and you will not talk or see anybody.

And I know there are some in America who say they should just do this for themselves. Well, guess what? They are citizens of the United States of America. They are a colony of the United States of America. And I would just ask America--there are over half a million people on that island who are homeless, whose homes have been destroyed, and our government--here is the one question people kept asking me no matter where I went, they said: Where is FEMA? Where is the help that we expect from the most powerful and richest Nation on the Earth in this moment of despair?

And soon it will be out of the headlines, and soon it will be out of the rotation, and we will try to forget, but they will continue to suffer.

I came back on a flight from Puerto Rico this past Saturday night filled

with people fleeing, and I met this wonderful woman who said to me: I have my child here. I am dropping her with my sister so that she can be free.

We would not allow this in Texas. We would not allow this in New Jersey. We would not allow this in Florida. We did not allow it even after a week in Katrina. Let's not allow it in Puerto Rico either.

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.

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.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for votes Tuesday, October 10, 2017. Had I been present, I would have voted ``Yea'' on roll call votes 558 and 559.

Mr. Speaker, it has been 3 weeks since the eye of Hurricane Maria crossed over Puerto Rico. It has been 3 weeks, and there are still parts of the island that have not had contact with FEMA yet--3 weeks. For most people, that has meant no power, and most still don't have running water.

Hospitals and clinics were hit hard, as The New York Times reports. The daughter of one man who died because he couldn't receive oxygen treatment told the paper: ``Because of the electricity situation, a lot of people died and are still dying.''

Forty percent of the island still lacks running water because of the blackout, which still affects 85 percent of the island. As a result, many people are bathing in streams and receiving water from huge tanks, which is never a good idea.

This is after 3 weeks in the most powerful nation on Earth. This is unacceptable.

Our response to Hurricane Maria and the people of Puerto Rico is a national and international embarrassment and a tragedy. They are our own citizens in our own Caribbean colonies of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and we have not helped them all that we can.

I spoke to Chicago firefighters yesterday who have been in Puerto Rico for about a week, and they tell me it is worse than we are being told.

They told me yesterday that they are still making contact in towns where people come up to them and say, ``Thank God, it is FEMA; you are finally here,'' only to be told, ``No, we are not FEMA; we are from Chicago; we are firefighters,'' and they embrace and cry with gratitude.

Last week, a group of my colleagues and I got together. We represent large Puerto Rican communities here on the mainland in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, and Florida. All of us have been contacted by our constituents who are in desperate need to get their loved ones back and out of Puerto Rico.

After 3 weeks, they have run out of patience and are not interested in excuses in our congressional district. They want their parents, they want their Tia with cancer, and they want their cousins on dialysis off the island, period, now. They want a plane ticket to get the hell out.

Our communities are ready. Lorain, Ohio; Hartford; Boston; Orlando; New York; Chicago; we are all ready, but the problem is transportation. If you have money, connections, or internet access, then you probably can find a flight out.

I know this because I was in Puerto Rico 2 weeks ago, and I saw the Land Rovers, the Jaguars, parked at the private airports in San Juan, because if you have the money, you have already put your loved ones on a flight out of Dodge.

The individuals from FEMA have been doing a great job, given the constraints, but I think now FEMA and the military resources should focus on the task of evacuating the elderly, the sick, and the vulnerable from the island.

Look, this is the way FEMA works. They say: Well, we only take on tasks that the Governor asks us to take on, and the Governor is not likely to go to FEMA to ask them to get thousands and thousands of his constituents off the island.

Number one, it is a difficult request for any local official to make. Captains of industry and leaders on the island want to make sure that there are Puerto Rican workers there to rebuild, and of course, to continue to buy their products. I get that. But at the same time, those same captains of industry and political leaders, guess what, I bet you most of them have already got their loved ones off the island.

Number two, we know the Governor has to be extremely careful how he asks for anything because we all know the President doesn't take criticism very well or even a hint of criticism. The Governor doesn't want to get blackballed by the President who might go off on a Twitter rant at any moment unless he is praised and stroked every step of the way.

But our Puerto Rican constituents don't vote for the Governor of Puerto Rico. They vote for us, for DeLauro, for Crowley, for McGovern, for Espaillat, for Marcy Kaptur, and they want us to help them get their families out of danger's way. They are demanding help getting their family members out, and I think FEMA and the U.S. military can do the job. They just need the orders from the people in charge.

Let's be clear: if anyone wants to leave Puerto Rico, they should have our help in doing so. For thousands, it is a question of life and death and survival. That is what is needed to help Puerto Rico. We don't need the President tossing paper towels to storm victims like he was tossing a ball to a dog or maybe tossing peanuts to squirrels in the park. We need airplanes, ships, and helicopters to get the people the hell out; otherwise, it will be worse than let them eat cake; it is let them die.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for Roll Call vote 546 on Tuesday, October 3, 2017. Had I been present, I would have voted Nay