On the recordOctober 12, 2017
I am pleased to yield 6 minutes to the gentlewoman from Puerto Rico (Miss Gonzalez-Colon), whose leadership in this time of crisis we all salute. Miss GONZALEZ-COLON of Puerto Rico. Mr. Speaker, first, I thank the Speaker of the House and the whole leadership, Chairman Frelinghuysen, and all of the members from the Appropriations Committee for allowing the Federal Government to help Puerto Rico in this dire situation. On behalf of the 3.4 million American citizens that live in Puerto Rico and the nearly 5.5 million Puerto Ricans that live on the mainland, I rise today in strong support of this disaster supplemental appropriations bill. They have been focused on Puerto Rico since before the arrival of Hurricane Irma, and then during Hurricane Maria. I also thank all of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle who have reached out during these past 3 weeks to express their encouragement and offer their assistance during this process. For that, my constituents and I will always be grateful to all of the Members of this House. As you may know by now, Puerto Rico was hit by two major hurricanes. First, Hurricane Irma, which caused significant damage on the eastern part of the island. That was on September 6. Then, on September 20, a few days later, we got hit by Hurricane Maria, which caused unprecedented destruction throughout the whole island and which many people consider that hurricane to be the most catastrophic natural disaster ever on U.S. soil.…
