{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/letters/lawmakers-request-that-inspector-general-review-femas-faltering-efforts-to-rebuild-vieques-closed-health-care-facility", "Lawmakers Request that Inspector General Review FEMA's Faltering Efforts to Rebuild Vieques' Closed Health Care Facility", "2019-12-16", "2019", "2019-12", "Democrat", "House", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 16, 2019\n\t\t\t Lawmakers Request that Inspector General Review FEMA's Faltering Efforts to Rebuild Vieques' Closed Health Care Facility \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t More than two years after Hurricane Maria Devastated Puerto Rico, 9,000 U.S. citizens still lack access to a functioning health care facility on Vieques; Current law requires FEMA to replace or restore critical service facilities damaged by the storm\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWashington, DC - United States Senator Elizabeth Warren\r\n(D-Mass.), Representative Nydia Velzquez (D-N.Y.), Senator Robert Menendez\r\n(D-N.J.), House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ral Grijalva (D-Ariz.),\r\nHouse Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), and\r\nHouse Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter DeFazio\r\n(D-Ore.) sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector\r\nGeneral (IG) Joseph V. Cuffari requesting an audit or evaluation of the Federal\r\nEmergency Management Agency's (FEMA) efforts to reconstruct the Vieques public\r\ncommunity health center (Centro de Salud Familiar Susana Centeno).Vieques, a Puerto Rican island located roughly seven miles off the coast of\r\nmainland Puerto Rico, is home to thousands of U.S. citizens and was devastated\r\nby Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. The public community health center was\r\nthe only facility performing the functions of a hospital on the\r\nisland-municipality and has remained closed since suffering hurricane damage,\r\ndespite the Bipartisan Budget Act and the Additional Supplemental\r\nAppropriations for Disaster Relief Act, signed into law in February 2018\r\nand June 2019, respectively, requiring FEMA to replace or restore critical\r\nservice facilities damaged by the storm.In May 2019, several Members of Congress urged\r\nFEMA to take rapid and robust action to help rebuild the Vieques health\r\nfacility following damage from Hurricane Maria in September 2017 that led to\r\nthe facility's closing. The facility remains closed, and the island's 9,000\r\nresidents - including those with serious health problems - must still take the\r\nferry to the mainland of Puerto Rico to receive even basic care. Congress has\r\nnot yet received a written response to their May 2019 letter.\"It is unacceptable that U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico continue to lack\r\naccess to high-quality critical health services years after a disaster, and\r\nthat FEMA has failed to take rapid and robust action to provide viequenses\r\nwith needed recovery resources that have been and are being provided to other\r\nU.S. jurisdictions and communities,\" wrote the lawmakers.FEMA informed Congressional staff during a November 14, 2019 briefing that\r\nthe agency had identified the medical center as an \"ambulatory health care\r\nfacility\" rather than a hospital, which could result in less funding for,\r\nand more limited health services in, a reconstructed facility. The lawmakers'\r\nletter criticizes this decision, noting that the Vieques public community\r\nhealth center performed the functions of a hospital before the hurricane,\r\nhousing the island's only labor and delivery room and providing inpatient\r\nadmissions, despite lacking formal hospital designation. The facility also\r\nhoused the Vieques VA Clinic and provided access to primary care for the\r\nisland's veterans.\"It remains troubling that while the public community health center\r\nremains closed, forcing viequenses to depend on interim health\r\nservices, FEMA continues to make determinations and policy choices that may\r\nlimit the ultimate restoration of pre-disaster services to Vieques,\" the\r\nlawmakers wrote.Senator Warren has been a steadfast champion for Puerto Rico and has paid\r\nspecial attention to Vieques.\r\n In July 2019, Senator Warren\r\nand Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), along with 15 of\r\ntheir colleagues, sent\r\na letter to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Senate and House Armed\r\nServices Committees urging them to include a provision funding the safe\r\ncleanup of military waste on Vieques in the final National Defense\r\nAuthorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020.The effort was successful.\r\n Earlier in May 2019, she\r\nre-introduced theU.S.\r\nTerritorial Relief Act, along with Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.),\r\nKamala Harris (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Edward J. Markey\r\n(D-Mass.), and Representative Velzquez, to provide a pathway to\r\ncomprehensive debt relief for Puerto Rico and other disaster-ravaged U.S.\r\nterritories so they can recover and rebuild with dignity.\r\n In March 2018, shejoinedher\r\ncolleagues in writing to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to request\r\ninformation about the draw-down of Army Corps personnel working on\r\nelectricity restoration, especially on Vieques.\r\n In October 2017, she and\r\nSenator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) led their colleagues inurgingthe\r\nTrump Administration to prioritize hurricane relief efforts on Vieques and\r\nCulebra, another Puerto Rican island, and called on the White House to\r\nswiftly secure the Superfund site on Vieques. Earlier that month,\r\nsheled her colleagues incallingonPresident\r\nTrump to step up disaster recovery efforts on Vieques and Culebra after\r\nthe islands were devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.\r\nFor more information about her extensive work fighting for robust recovery\r\nefforts for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands since Hurricanes Irma and\r\nMaria, as well as her work fighting for comprehensive debt relief for the\r\nisland, visitwww.warren.senate.gov/puertorico. ###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article", 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://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/letters/lawmakers-request-that-inspector-general-review-femas-faltering-efforts-to-rebuild-vieques-closed-health-care-facility"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.810505822300911, "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"}