Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief and Puerto Rico Disaster Tax Relief Act, 2020

Floor Speech

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Ms. TLAIB. Madam Chair, I would like to begin by thanking Congresswoman Lowey, our Subcommittee Chairman Price, and their staff for working with me on this amendment and for their critical leadership on this bill.

I would also like to thank my sisters in service, Congresswoman Velazquez and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, for leading this amendment with me. I am so proud to partner with them to make our government more accessible, especially in times of disaster.

This amendment ensures meaningful access to fellow Americans with limited English abilities to the public information maintained by grantees of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Fund.

The amendment rests on two principles, Madam Chair. First, the Puerto Rican people have a right to know how this relief money is being spent in their own communities.

Second, no one is in a better position to hold officials and grant recipients accountable and to ensure that the money we allocate today is used in the best interests of the community than the people of Puerto Rico themselves.

That is why it is critical that we ensure that any information made available is easily accessible to all people, regardless of what language they speak.

I cannot overstate how important it is that we pass this bill. The people of Puerto Rico are struggling and persevering through some of the most difficult circumstances that any of us have ever experienced.

The bill provides over $4 billion in critical disaster relief and long-term recovery assistance, and funds programs and grants to get kids back in fully-functioning schools, repairing damages to infrastructure and roads, and to rebuild the island's electrical grid that has been damaged because of disasters and so forth, and ensure that no one else is affected, or that children don't go to sleep hungry.

It is time--it is time to release these funds.

To hold the money that can save lives is not only inhumane and immoral, but it is, more dangerously, a form of oppression. The disconnection to human suffering that we cause by doing nothing is what will continue to fail the American people.

Passing this bill fulfills the central promise of our democracy governed ``of the people, by the people, and for the people.''

Passing this amendment in this bill ensures that some of the most vulnerable people have full access to democracy, regardless of who they are, where they are from, and what language they speak.

I urge my colleagues to please support this amendment.

Madam Chair, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price), my distinguished fellow colleague and chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for yielding.

I am happy to rise in support of this amendment. It is a very well- considered amendment, one that is an important addition to this bill.

Access to linguistically appropriate materials, understandable materials, in the CDBG-DR program is vitally important. Meaningful access to program materials is essential for transparency, for public input, and for knowledge on how you take advantage of these benefits and these programs and what is available under the disaster assistance programs.

While HUD currently requires all grantees to provide meaningful access, this puts a finer point on it, and we need to do that. It is important to underscore HUD's responsibility and the grantee's responsibility to provide access in dispensing this aid.

I thank my colleagues for this amendment.

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Ms. TLAIB. Madam Chair, I want to reiterate the importance of this amendment. As a person who was born and raised in this country and who didn't speak English when I started school, and who is now a Member of this Chamber, I can tell my colleagues personally how critical this is to our democracy and to protecting all of us.

I thank my colleagues again for their tremendous support, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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