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| The president has a business history with Puerto Rico. |
President Trump by and through the DHS yesterday, denied a request from several members of Congress to waive shipping restrictions to help get gasoline and other supplies to Puerto Rico as the island recovers from Hurricane Maria.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declined the request to waive the Jones Act, which limits shipping between coasts to U.S.-flagged vessels, according to Reuters. DHS waived the act following hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which hit the mainland U.S.
(related story)
The agency has in the past waived the rule to allow cheaper and more readily-available foreign vessels to supply goods to devastated areas. But DHS said Tuesday that waiving the act for Puerto Rico would not help the U.S. island territory due to damaged ports preventing ships from docking.
In a letter to the department on Tuesday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) urged DHS to rethink the decision, citing the agency's willingness to waive the Jones Act for relief efforts in the wake of hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
“The Department of Homeland Security has been given the ability to waive the Jones Act to accommodate national security concerns, and has done so twice in the last month,” McCain wrote. “These emergency waivers have been valuable to speed up recovery efforts in the impacted regions. However, I am very concerned by the Department’s decision not to waive the Jones Act for current relief efforts in Puerto Rico, which is facing a worsening humanitarian crisis following Hurricane Maria."
McCain called the department's decision "unacceptable" and warned that Puerto Rico faces a humanitarian crisis as the island's 3.4 million people struggle to survive without power or clean water.
UPDATE: Report from a citizen in Puerto Rico:
Jorge Bracero
"Im in PR. I work as a power operator for the electric company. I have a 32week pregnant wife, this is the first time since our collapse that facebook newsfeed logged and updated. This is my top story. Reading the comments i cant help feel rage and desperation
First off. Fema has federalized our gas and diesel channels. The lines at a gas station to fill your tank is around 12 hrs. Ive done it twice. They have hoarded all resources and manpower meaning transportation truckers capable of supplying gas stations. Fema right now has made a gas crisis horrible. I travelled far to find family members since communications are down. All condos have no diesel so no water can go up the pumps to flush. The smell of shit and piss is beyond this hemisphere. Because of no diesel we are having our sick dying in their homes. Some died bc of oxygen failures bc their generators eventually died but bc of no way to get a drop a single drop of diesel or gas for a week. I found most of them. I still after a week cannot see my mom, a mountainside of dead trees are in the way making it impassable. I called her she has food and water for a day more. Thats gonna be my mission tomorrow. Get my mother some food.
Most and i mean almost all trees in the island are dead. Meaning no vapor. No clouds. No rain. We have to reforest inmedietly or we become a desert island. A dead island. I cannot recall a day where i looked up and so no clouds. Its been a week now and the sight is terrifying. There has been absolutely no drops of any supplies to anyone. At all. There has been no msg on radios nor speakers regarding supply drops or water. Jones act prevents ships from around the world to come directly here without it stopping first in the US then having those supplies moved to a US shipping container and then sent here. So now the world can see the horror of that. They cannot send help directly and time is running out.
As i write this im on a ceiling of the third home i called home during this disaster. As water and supplies and dangers arise we have to keep moving. My wife best friend lost her pregnancy during this ordeal. Now im so terrified of my wife pregancy.Ive no damn idea how in 7 weeks im gonna help my baby girl survive this heatwave that never stops now we lost our vegetation and she cannot travel bc of advance stage pregnancy. I felt useless trying to console my wife bc her bf baby died. Btw thank you airlines for charging 2k for a plane ticket when they normally sell for 300 so people can run away. I can see the small isla grande airstrip from here and see the little planes leave at all times , they are ferrying people to the dominican republic and then fly to the states. Granted our main intl airport suffer the lost of the traffic control for 30 miles and commercial flights are hesitant to come. Thanks for the price hike. Get the damn army to put a radar like in a war zone and get us moving
Anyway. This is my rant. Im just desperate. I hope its not like what i heard at the bank line today that all trump said was that we need to pay wall street our debt while we dying here and he talks about peaceful protesters taking a knee on the anthem. Yeah, i can believe that..."
Officials estimate the island could be without power for up to six months.
"It is unacceptable to force the people of Puerto Rico to pay at least twice as much for food, clean drinking water, supplies and infrastructure due to Jones Act requirements as they work to recover from this disaster," McCain wrote.
"Now, more than ever, it is time to realize the devastating effect of this policy and implement a full repeal of this archaic and burdensome Act,” he wrote.
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