Opportunity to Transform the Virgin Islands

Floor Speech

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Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, first, I offer my prayers and the prayers of the people of the Virgin Islands for the people of Puerto Rico after the devastation of Hurricane Fiona. My colleague across the aisle, Congresswoman Gonzalez-Colon, knows that, like so many other issues, she has my support.

Mr. Speaker, like many Virgin Islanders, September is a month forever etched in my mind. Five years ago on September 6, Hurricane Irma relentlessly pummeled the territory, and Virgin Islanders watched in mute shock as a Category 5 storm shredded roofs, uprooted trees, and shattered lives.

Then, 2 weeks after Hurricane Irma, 5 years ago today, Hurricane Maria made landfall. For hours that stretched into the early morning, another Category 5 hurricane brought destruction across parts of the island that had not been shredded by Irma.

The compounded impact of two Category 5 hurricanes is unfathomable. Virgin Islanders, undeterred by the dramatic scale of devastation, rallied in the face of tragedy and proceeded to rebuild their lives and our community.

Virgin Islanders banded together to deliver food and medical supplies, organize cleanup initiatives, and volunteer to transport people and goods between the multiple islands and Puerto Rico.

The response of this body, the House of Representatives, from leadership chairs to rank-and-file Members, was extraordinary. Ultimately, the dialogues and relentless advocacy were crucial to securing extraordinary funding and a significant change to the Stafford Act for the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico to not only provide necessary funding to rebuild but to rebuild with resiliency, to rebuild not as things were but as things should have been.

Despite the tremendous bipartisan funding, however, recovery stalled during the Trump administration due to, frankly, a belief by that administration that the funding was too much for the people of the Virgin Islands and not the financial responsibility of the Federal Government. Money was slow-walked.

Additionally, with the changes in law made by this Congress to allow the Virgin Islands to rebuild to prevailing industry standards, HUD, and especially FEMA, have had difficulty at the regional and local levels in accepting and implementing the changes in standards.

In view of this and unnecessary government bureaucracy, I coauthored the Expediting Disaster Recovery Act, a bipartisan disaster relief bill, with my colleague Representative Garret Graves, which expedites the allocation of additional funds and assistance to cover unmet needs.

Our isolation from the mainland and relatively small size created difficulty in obtaining supplies and workers, and the decision to report in to Puerto Rico added another layer of bureaucracy, further hindering the speed of rebuilding.

I must be transparent by recognizing that, unfortunately, local government exacerbated the slow pace of the rebuild. The unprecedented funding was not met with sufficient macro planning. We did not use the first years after the storm and still have not sufficiently built capacity--training individuals while paying them to meet construction and project management demands, developing integrated fund and project management systems, aggressively recruiting experienced Virgin Islanders to return home to advance the rebuild, and educating the people to be prepared for spending the massive funding.

Fortunately, there is a window of opportunity to jump-start this rebuild while Democrats remain in the majority, our President prioritizes resiliency in underserved areas that are particularly vulnerable to climate change, and our local and Federal elected officials maintain transparency and cooperation to advance this once- in-a-generation opportunity to transform the Virgin Islands.

I am continually encouraged by the grit and heroism exhibited by my people, the people of the Virgin Islands, who face the grueling task of rebuilding their lives with sheer tenacity and determination.

Together, we have a shared responsibility to safeguard the future of these islands by ensuring that the Virgin Islands remain stronger and more resilient from the twin tragedies of back-to-back Category 5 storms. The opportunity that lies before us is too great and meaningful to let pass by.

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