In House Floor Speech, Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Urges President Trump to Declare Federal Emergency on Island’s Electric Grid Crisis

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a speech on the U.S. House floor, Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández urged President Donald J. Trump to declare a federal emergency on the island’s energy crisis.

The Resident Commissioner, joined by U.S. Representatives Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) and Darren Soto (D-Fla.), sent a letter to President Trump urging him to declare a federal emergency to increase flexibility in the use of federal resources to address Puerto Rico’s electric grid crisis.

This request follows a similar call from Puerto Rico Repulican Governor Jenniffer González-Colón, who urged then-President Joe Biden to take immediate action to stabilize and improve the island’s fragile power system.

Click HERE to read the Resident Commissioner’s letter.

Below and HERE you can find the speech of the Resident Commissioner as it was delivered:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Imagine it’s New Year's Eve. You’re filled with hope and optimism. This will be your year. You might finally get that promotion. You might graduate. You might finally lose those extra pounds, and all of a sudden, the power goes out. You are used to it.

It’s maybe the first time it happens that day. It probably isn’t the first time it happens that week. It certainly isn’t the first time it happens that year. But the hours go by, and power doesn’t come back.

The clock strikes 12.

You hear the fireworks. You hear the countdowns.

But you try to turn on the power, and there, it doesn’t turn back on.

That was the sad reality of nearly 1.2 million Puerto Ricans on New Year’s Eve.

That is the sad reality that many thousands of Puerto Ricans will face on an average day.

Why?

An outdated power grid and a slow recovery process after Hurricane María.

Puerto Rico’s energy crisis is not a partisan issue. The left can treat it as a humanitarian crisis. The right can see it as an obstacle to Making America Great Again. The center can view it as both.

It is a problem, and it needs a solution.

Which is why I, alongside Representatives Torres and Soto, sent a letter to the administration in support of our Republican governor’s request for a federal emergency declaration to address this crisis.

We urge the administration to act.

We urge the administration to unblock the federal resources that Puerto Rico needs to address this problem.

We urge the administration to empower the people of Puerto Rico to be able to overcome this issue.

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