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Claiming that the Pakistani people need U.S. help, a U.S. lawmaker has proposed legislation to provide more help to the country devastated by recent floods.
The cash-strapped country has been battling its worst flooding in the past 30 years, killing more than 1,400 people and affecting 33 million since early June.
One-third of the country was submerged in water, with one in seven people severely affected by flooding, resulting in an estimated $12 billion in damages and inundating about 78,000 square kilometers (21 million acres) of crops.
Also read | Satellite imagery reveals Pakistan flood rage | See pics
“The people of Pakistan need our help. Pakistani-Americans have answered their call. My congressional constituency,” Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, co-chair of the Pakistan Congressional Caucus, said in her remarks to the House of Representatives. There are so many people who are providing and willing to help provide medical care.
Speaking in the House of Representatives, Jackson-Lee said it was important for Congress to publicly acknowledge the catastrophes that people face every day.
“You can imagine that even in the trials and tribulations we face in America, you have a group of people isolated by dirty water, and some people living in remote areas without any kind of shelter,” she said.
“People are starving, food shortages are increasing. Pregnant women are terrified of the incredible challenges they face when giving birth,” she said.
“Ma’am Speaker, I call on Congress to join me in supporting this legislation to deal with the devastation of the floods in Pakistan as I introduce it, and to acknowledge the dire conditions facing our friends in Pakistan,” Jackson-Lee said.
Pakistan has always been a friend, she said, and helped the US evacuate Afghan refugees; helped in the war on terror, where they lost Pakistani troops.
“And of course there is a large and very attractive Pakistani diaspora, Pakistani-Americans who are both respected and of course actively working with the U.S. government to try and save babies, children, women and men, people who are sick, need kidneys People who are transplanted, people who don’t have access to medicines, we have to come forward,” she said.
Jackson-Lee had just returned from Pakistan after a 10-day visit with the Congressional Pakistan Caucus. “My eyes can see the water. The devastation is overwhelming: 33 million people are displaced, more than 600,000 are homeless, but more are starving,” she said.
She thanked the Biden administration for its initial $30 million support for the UN Fund and an additional $20 million in funding.
“After we were briefed in Islamabad and worked with the government, the US military joined in providing 300,000 tents,” she said.
“For my colleagues, more is needed. I will introduce legislation that reflects the work of the delegation and its efforts; that is, we need additional funding to deal with these disruptive situations,” from Texas of the Democratic congresswoman said.
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