Since Hamas’s horrific October 7, 2023 terrorist attack against Israel, U.S. cities and campuses are seeing a disturbing rise in antisemitic, pro-terrorist violence. There remains concern that participants in these acts are here on visas and are not being held...
U.S. Navy destroyer USS Carney, homeported at Naval Station Mayport, Florida after an eight-month deployment to the Middle East. This historic deployment saw 51 engagements with Iranian-backed terrorists, the most engagements with a foreign adversary by a Naval vessel...
The Office of the Surgeon General announced a public advisory warning of alarmingly high levels of parental stress. The advisory and the Surgeon General’s accompanying op-ed, offered a set of “solutions” that fail to address the actual wants and needs of struggling...
Casi dos meses tras las elecciones presidenciales en Venezuela, que dieron como resultado una victoria aplastante por parte de Edmundo González, el narco-dictador Nicolás Maduro mantiene su pretensión ilegítima de haber ganado los comicios. Desde las elecciones, la...
Almost two months after the presidential election in Venezuela, which resulted in the landslide victory of Edmundo Gonzalez, narco-dictator Nicolás Maduro maintains his illegitimate claim to winning the election. Since the election, the dictator has arbitrarily...
Dr. Gulshan Abbas, the sister of staunch international Uyghur advocate, Rushan Abbas, remains detained in a Chinese prison. U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and colleagues released a joint statement ahead of the six-year anniversary of Dr....
Washington, D.C. – Following his press conference this morning, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is formally calling on President Trump to put the Department of Defense (DOD) in charge of handling the logistics of distributing recovery aid in Puerto Rico as the island grapples with the crisis caused by Hurricane Maria.
The full text of Rubio’s letter to the president is below:
Dear Mr. President:
After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, conditions on the ground remain dire and it appears there are fundamental problems associated with the recovery efforts to date.
As you are aware, FEMA plays a significant supporting role in providing targeted federal assistance to local government officials. There are significant logistical concerns regarding the urgent actions your administration is taking to bring relief to our fellow Americans on the island of Puerto Rico. There is no clear command, control, and communication between local officials on the ground and federal agencies, and many roads and bridges remained unpassable, making it even more difficult for repair crews to restore power and communications to areas of the island outside of San Juan. As a result, significant lifesaving resources are sitting in containers at the Port of San Juan, with no way to move that assistance to those who need it most.
This unique situation requires a well-coordinated response led by the Department of Defense (DOD), which is the only entity capable of executing a recovery effort of this scale and complexity. DOD is internationally recognized for its humanitarian relief efforts and its expertise is required now more than ever. I urge you, as commander-in-chief, to make DOD the lead agency in the ground phase of recovery efforts.
I commend DOD’s decision to appoint a brigadier general as the lead military official in charge of the humanitarian assistance mission in Puerto Rico, but time is of the essence. The logistical chain in Puerto Rico isn’t just broken, at this point it is virtually non-existent. Unless DOD steps in quickly to establish emergency logistical assistance, it is my fear this situation will deteriorate rapidly.
Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to working with you on recovery efforts.
Sincerely,