'Unimaginable Tragedy': Kweisi Mfume Honors Victims Of Baltimore Bridge Collapse On The House Floor

5 months ago

During remarks on the House floor, Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD) honored the victims of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, and urged support and funding for recovery and rebuilding efforts.

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Transcript

00:00Thank You Mr. Speaker also yes unanimous consent that all members may have five

00:04days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material.

00:12Without objection. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker let me begin by thanking the

00:18gentlewoman from Texas for her opening remarks of this special hour dedicated

00:25to make sure that we underscore the sense of tragedy the sense of loss and

00:32the sense of damage that has occurred as a result of the bridge collapse in

00:37Baltimore and I want to thank her again for sitting in and standing in your

00:42remarks were very well received we appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. Speaker I

00:48rise today shortly to welcome other members again who will be coming over to

00:57be a part of this special order and I want to call everyone's attention to the

01:02fact that somewhere around 1 30 a.m. on March 26 the Dahlia a large 985 foot

01:12cargo ship weighing 95,000 tons went empty collided as we all know now

01:19tragically with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The Dahlia's

01:25collision with the key bridge caused its fatal collapse into the Patapsco River

01:31and has forced the Port of Baltimore to suspend vessel traffic until further

01:38notice. All of the shipping lanes with the exception of the ones that the

01:43Coast Guard was just recently able to open have been closed and we don't

01:48expect that that to change until sometime around the end of May if we are

01:53fortunate. Aside from that I think it's always important to recognize that it

01:59was not the collapse of the bridge alone that troubled us but it was also the

02:05loss of human life. Our hearts continue to go out to the families who lost their

02:14loved ones on that bridge on that fateful evening. This unimaginable

02:22disaster claimed the lives as we know now of six men. Alejandro Hernandez

02:29Fuentes, Menor Yassir Sandoval, Miguel Luna, Dorian Castillo Cabrera, Jose Menor

02:44Lopez and Carlos Hernandez. Those stories and those lives have yet to be fully

02:55understood or told but those men most of whom had been in this country 16 or 17

03:02years working in most instances two jobs, married with children and raising

03:10families, paying taxes and doing what a lot of people would not want to do at

03:161.30 in the morning that high up on a bridge filling potholes. We in the state

03:25of Maryland continue to mourn them as do people all over the country and we

03:31know that they were indeed as I said husbands, somebody's father, somebody's

03:39brother. Their passing serves as a solemn reminder to cherish our own lives and

03:47the lives of those that we really deeply care about. These men gave their heart

03:54they gave their set and ultimately gave their souls. They leave behind six

04:02grieving families and loved ones that will never see them again. So those

04:09families can never get enough of our condolences and our prayers and our

04:14sympathies. I want to thank the largest Latino and immigrant organization in the

04:22Mid-Atlantic Casa de Maryland and its executive director Gustavo Torres and

04:27all of those who worked so hard to support those grieving families the day

04:34of the collapse and every day since then both financially and emotionally and I

04:40ask that we continue to lift them in prayer in a time of great tragedy that

04:45all Americans regardless of where they are to some extent feel understand and

04:51grieve for. I'd be remiss if I did not thank President Joe Biden who called the

04:59governor and myself and other members of the delegation that morning to express

05:06his profound regret and his unstinting and unwavering support for finding a way

05:13to make things whole again to rebuild that bridge and to allow those shipping

05:20lanes of commerce to be open. President Biden since the beginning of this has

05:26not wavered in his support of replacing that bridge and not just for the sake of

05:33replacing a bridge and to open as I said before the channels of commerce but to

05:40also find a way to give hope to all of the many people who are affected the

05:46thousands of longshoremen thousands of dock workers that do odd jobs all of

05:53those in the communities of Turner Station and Dundalk Maryland who are

05:58right at the mouth of the bridge as well as all those small businesses and

06:03business owners the truck drivers and others everyone affected when all

06:08commerce came to a halt so thank you President Biden we have appreciated the

06:15simple eloquence of your example in this tragedy we pledge to work with you

06:20and with the appropriate members of the Appropriations Bill or Appropriations

06:27Committee here in the Congress. In addition to the president I want to

06:31thank Secretary Buttigieg who also reached out early that morning as the

06:37sun rose and who was one of the first boots on the ground by noon. Secretary

06:43Buttigieg was initially responsible in making sure that the cleanup funds the

06:48initial dollars got appropriated and let right away and they were sent and are

06:54being used now in cleanup of the massive amount of debris which I'm going to talk

07:00about which is almost unthinkable when you consider a bridge of that size.

07:08Administrator Guzman and the SBA we thank you and we thank all of those SBA

07:13officials who came over and who started working with small businesses who are

07:19severely impacted by this as was the case with Acting Secretary you sue of

07:25the Department of Labor. Now one of the things that we believe is very important

07:34and I think it's important to mention right now is that the United States

07:40Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers immediately stood up a command

07:47team on the scene immediately began working with Governor Westmore of

07:53Maryland who by the way has just done an excellent job in marshaling all of the

07:59state's resources and that command team made up of the Coast Guard the Army

08:05Corps of Engineers the state police the FBI and so many others that were

08:09involved from the start of this really has made a difference in terms of the

08:15progress that has been made thus far. The Maryland Department of the

08:20Environment and the Transportation Authority also very much a part of what

08:28took place and so this unified command as I indicated were some of the first

08:33boots on the ground and they've responded to this crisis day in and day

08:38out with diligence and with precision. Their work around the clock 24-7 does

08:46not go unnoticed by our city our state or our nation and we owe much dedication

08:54to those servicemen and servicewomen who even at this hour as I speak are

08:59still very much involved as they have been in trying to find a way to open

09:04those channels. There are 51 divers in the water right now going through the

09:11wreckage trying to assess the danger in very dangerous dark and murky

09:16circumstances. We still have three individuals who have not yet been

09:22recovered and so the work of those divers is particularly important so that

09:28these families might be able to bring closure to all that's going on. I

09:34mentioned Governor Wes Moore I want to speak more about him and his team and

09:41the members of the Maryland delegation who have worked in lockstep with one

09:47another to get us to this point. My thanks to both senators in the other

09:54body, Senators Cardin and Van Hollen, the entire House delegation, Congressman

10:03Hoyer, Congressman Ruppesberger, Congressman Raskin who you'll hear from

10:08in just a moment,

10:09Congressman Sarbanes, Congressman Andy Harris, Congressman Trone, Congressman

10:15Glenn Ivey and myself. I'd like if I might before I talk more about the

10:22state's effort and what we are really dealing with when we think of this

10:26collapse, it's more than just concrete and bricks and steel falling into the

10:32ocean. It has disrupted supply chains across this nation that we hope to

10:39reopen and to reestablish. So allow me if I might, Mr. Speaker, to yield three

10:44minutes to my fellow Marylander, the gentleman who is the ranking member of

10:51the House Oversight Committee, Congressman Raskin.

'Unimaginable Tragedy': Kweisi Mfume Honors Victims Of Baltimore Bridge Collapse On The House Floor

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