Bipartisan lawmakers who were planning a Friday trip to Puerto Rico to survey damage from Hurricane Maria were denied a plane by federal authorities until after President Donald Trump’s visit to the island next week.
Florida Democratic Rep. Darren Soto said the travel plans were bumped to Sunday and then cancelled, and “now we’ve been told that we will have no federal assets available to us until after the Tuesday trip by the President.”
“Mr. President we fear you are grossly underestimating the devastation down there. We need urgency, not talks — and we can’t wait until Tuesday for you to go down there,” Soto said at a news conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
“Don’t let this be another Katrina,” the Florida Democrat warned, adding: “the people of Puerto Rico are dying, the people of the Virgin Islands are dying. They are out of water, they are out of food, they are out of gas, hospitals need generators and these are American citizens.”
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment and has not yet gotten a response.
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio was organizing the visit with Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, and Soto and Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy were also planning to join them. Oriana Piña, Soto’s spokeswoman, said that the Trump administration relayed that “only life supporting trips will be made using official government resources at this time.”
Soto told CNN he was working with an outside group to arrange transportation to travel to island Sunday and he felt he needed to go as soon as possible to get a first hand look at what else is needed in terms of the federal response.
He also argued that any disaster funding package should include resources for Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and aid should be allocated on a “per-capita basis” for all hurricane victims in all states and territories.
Both House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have committed that Congress will act on a robust disaster funding package to help storm victims as soon as it receives details from the Trump administration about what resources are needed. Republican aides expect that request will come in mid-October after a more thorough assessment is completed.
Rubio visited Puerto Rico earlier this week, and traveled there with the US Coast Guard, according to his spokeswoman. He met with Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday to discuss the federal response.
“I’m concerned about human suffering and potential loss of life. Our response needs to be above and beyond how we would normally respond in this situation,” Rubio told reporters on Tuesday.