Recently visited puerto rico to assess the impact these hurricanes have had and continue to have on americans. This committee has been conducting oversight of the federal response to the recent hurricanes since shortly after harvey made landfall in texas. Unfortunately, i expect that our work here will continue for years to come. The committees jurisdiction involves not just Public Health issues but rebuilding the electrical grid, addressing environmental cleanup and restoring telecommunications to name only a few. The people of puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands continue to face a long road to recovery and many are living without power and Running Water. I believe we are going to be joined today by representative Jennifer Gonzalez from puerto rico, someone who knows all too well about the difficult challenges her home is facing. Thank you for being here at this important hearing. From coordinating overall response to insuring that individuals have the medical treatment they need
The Vice President would be a pretty good one. Well see. We had a meeting with the Vice President and two cochairs and well see where that leads. But theres a lot of work to be done. Fortunately the panel provide a recommendation to further enhance our abilities to prevent, and respond and protect against a buy logical incident. Today we have the opportunity to discuss recommendations with the heads of several agencies, senior people in several agencies who will be responsible for implementing some of the recommendations of the earlier panel. Im eager to hear your thoughts and hear how you believe we can further improve our countrys biodefense systems. This is an important conversation to have. In the context of recent global events including a couple emergesing as we speak. Ebola continues to threaten west africa and the threat of the virus has declined significantly, thanks in no small part to the Investments America has made and the Health Systems of those countries hardest hit by t