Bill Nelson: “both of these UC requests are because there are a lot of people who are hurting in the aftermath of two hurricanes…”

“both of these UC requests are because there are a lot of people who are hurting in the aftermath of two hurricanes having hit Puerto Rico and because the island is still in great distress. Our fellow U.S. citizens on the island of Puerto Rico are, indeed, in great distress. It is not only because of the slow assistance by FEMA but because of the lack of electricity, as parts of Puerto Rico today are without electricity, with its going on 10 months after the hurricane. It is because of the number of people who are fleeing the island and, therefore, the jobs are not available because the economy has been so crippled. Naturally, a number of those people have fled to where they can find safety and shelter and put their children in school. By the way, there are a number of schools in Puerto Rico that are closed. Not just tens of thousands but hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans have fled the island to the States where there will be decent opportunities to get jobs, and a good number of them are in my State of Florida. In Florida, there are 600 families who have been in temporary housing. It is called TSA. It is called temporary shelter assistance. About 100 of those families have moved on to other States, and another 100 of those families have returned to the island. Yet 400 of those families are still in our State, and a good number of those 400 families are still in temporary shelter assistance. At least FEMA did not stop this assistance in March.…”