{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://titus.house.gov/press-releases/titus-joins-bipartisan-letter-in-support-of-us-airdrops-of-food-and-supplies-to", "Titus Joins Bipartisan Letter in Support of U.S. Airdrops of Food and Supplies to Remote Areas of the Philippines", "2013-11-26", "2013", "2013-11", "Democrat", "House", "NV", "Dina Titus", "T000468", "titus.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "November 26, 2013\nWashington, D.C. \u2013Congresswoman Dina Titus of Nevada\u2019s First District and 37 House colleagues sent a bipartisan letter to Department of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Raj Shah requesting that the U.S. Air Force administer airdrops of food and humanitarian supplies to the most remote areas of the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda.\n\u201cWith more than 10.3 million people affected by the devastating impact of Typhoon Haiyan and almost four million made homeless in its aftermath, we must do all that we can to provide assistance to the Filipino people. This is especially true for those living in the most remote areas of the country where inaccessible roads, lack of electricity, and limited fuel supplies have hindered aid efforts,\u201d said Titus. \u201cTRIADS is an effective method for administering food packages to isolated areas and should be quickly considered so those living in the most desolate regions of the Philippines can have access to lifesaving supplies.\u201d  \n\t\u00a0\nThe text of the letter is below:\nNovember 22, 2013\nDear Secretary Hagel and Administrator Shah:\nWe are writing in support of assisting people in the hardest hit areas of the Philippines through airdrops of humanitarian supplies after Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda.\u00a0\nAs you know, Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda struck the Philippines on November 8, 2013, creating unimaginable damage and devastation.\u00a0 Since this record storm made landfall, the United States and the international community have rushed to aid the people of the Philippines.\nAs of November 18, 2013, the United States Agency for International Development reported that Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda affected 10.3 million people, with four million being displaced.\u00a0 Today, many people remain in desperate need of basic goods such as food, water, and medical supplies.\nWe are proud of the swift efforts by the United States to assist our friends in the Philippines by coordinating the distribution of food, water, and humanitarian goods.\u00a0 Ideally our aid personnel on the ground would be available to directly distribute these goods to those in need.\u00a0 But, unfortunately, this is not a viable option due to extensive damage on the ground.\nAfter the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the U.S. Air Force dropped over 55,000 pounds of food and water to the areas that had been difficult to reach due to widespread damage.\u00a0 It is my understanding the United States is currently delivering food to the Philippines primarily through distribution centers and via helicopter and V22-Ospreys.\u00a0 Time is of the essence, and we hope you will use the U.S. Air Force to administer larger scale airdrops of humanitarian supplies to assist those in the most remote and inaccessible areas of the Philippines that were affected by the typhoon, to the fullest extent possible.\nIn particular, we wish to highlight an aid deployment strategy developed by the U.S. Air Force at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory called the Tri-wall Arial Delivery System, or TRIADS, which enables the dropping of food packages safely from high altitudes without parachutes.\u00a0 This technology has been effectively utilized to deliver millions of food packages in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti, and Pakistan.\u00a0 We believe that this approach could be particularly useful in distributing food in isolated areas in the Philippines without unintentionally injuring people on the ground.\nThank you for your leadership and continued efforts to assist the people of the Philippines as they begin to recover from this horrific disaster.\u00a0 We look forward to hearing from you soon regarding the use of airdrops of food and supplies to assist people in the most unreachable areas of the Philippines.\u00a0\nSincerely,\nDina Titus (NV-1)\nEric Swalwell (CA-15)\nJackie Speier (CA-14)\nRandy Weber (TX-14)\nDonald Payne Jr. (NJ-10)\nJim Himes (CT-4)\nFrederica Wilson (FL-24)\nColleen Hanabusa (HI-1)\nMark Pocan (WI-2)\nBrad Schneider (IL-10)\nJanice Hahn (CA-44)\nTulsi Gabbard (HI-2)\nJulia Brownley (CA-26)\nSam Farr (CA-20)\nJerry McNerney (CA-9)\nGrace Meng (NY-6)\nSteven Horsford (NV-4)\nZoe Lofgren (CA-19)\nJoe Crowley (NY-14)\nTony Cardenas (CA-29)\nRaul Grijalva (AZ-3)\nJudy Chu (CA-27)\nChris Van Hollen (MD-8)\nMichael Honda (CA-17)\nBeto O\u2019Rourke (TX-16)\nSheila Jackson Lee (TX-18)\nBrad Sherman (CA-30)\nKeith Ellison (MN-5)\nBarbara Lee (CA-13)\nYvette Clarke (NY-9)\nAlcee Hastings (FL-20)\nCharles Rangel (NY-13)\nJan Schakowsky (IL-9)\nLuis Guti\u00e9rrez (IL-4)\nScott Peters (CA-52)\nDutch Ruppersberger (MD-2)\nJohn Conyers (MI-13)\nDoris Matsui (CA-6)\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://titus.house.gov/press-releases/titus-joins-bipartisan-letter-in-support-of-us-airdrops-of-food-and-supplies-to"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0409168899059296, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}