Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a senior Member of the House Committees on Homeland Security and the Judiciary, and the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations, today released the following statement regarding her upcoming visit to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to assess the ongoing hurricane recovery efforts:

“Many Americans are still reckoning with the widespread damage that ravaged many parts of the country during last year’s hurricane season. From Puerto Rico to the Virgin Islands to Florida to my hometown of Houston, 2017 yielded some of the deadliest and costliest storms in recorded history. The situation in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands is especially dire, as reports suggest that critical infrastructure still has not yet been reinstated. We are currently in the ninth week of the 2018 Hurricane Season and this moment comes as many weeks after a report, released by Harvard University, indicating that the true death toll from Hurricane Maria was 4,645, and not 64 as the Trump Administration claimed, and therefore 70 times higher than previously reported. This is shocking and it is appalling that this has occurred to American citizens on American soil. Troubling still is that the concern about an undercounted registrar of fatalities was apparent in the immediate aftermath of the storm, but dismissed by a president who was eager to prove that his management of this calamity surpassed that of his predecessors, when in fact it is undoubtedly the most incompetent response to a natural disaster, ever. All told, the president’s mismanagement of and response to this crisis revealed a wholesale incompetence, the results of which were sad, an affront to human dignity, and cost the lives of thousands of American citizens.

“Recognizing the scale and impact of the tragedy, together with Leader Nancy Pelosi and members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, I have arrived in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to access the recovery efforts and ensure that major sustained efforts are underway to prepare both Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands for the 2018 Hurricane Season. The federal government must stand ready with a strategic plan for the coming season’s anticipated weather events. This is why, consistent with my Article I responsibilities as a member of Congress, and my seniority on the House Homeland Security Committee—the body charged with oversight over the Federal Emergency Management Agency—I am in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to assess the status of ongoing recovery efforts, and analyze plans for the current hurricane season.