Sheila Jackson Lee: “Now, what is the most important message? My people are suffering--and my constituents--still in Texas. They are…”

“Now, what is the most important message? My people are suffering--and my constituents--still in Texas. They are suffering in Florida. They are suffering now extraordinarily in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Your eyes should burn and your hearts should be struck by the absolute humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico. As I listened to my colleagues this morning as I was coming to this floor already on these issues, they pierced my heart even more because Puerto Rico is under water. The disease is rising. People with medicine are losing it because they do not have refrigeration, yet the idle talk and idle hands of the administration are, in fact, not doing anything sufficient enough to save those lives. I, too, have people in my district who are unhoused, but I am here because we are unified, and we must be able to speak about the whole of America. I have been to Puerto Rico on a number of issues. I know the leadership of the former Congressperson, and I believe that it is high time--if this is water that Hurricane Harvey was, imagine the disease of being hit by 155 miles per hour. It is now time to put a military czar in Puerto Rico. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.”