1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Vieques Recovery and Redevelopment Act . 2. Findings The Congress finds the following: (1) Vieques is an island municipality of Puerto Rico, measuring approximately 21 miles long by 4 miles wide, and located approximately 8 miles east of the main island of Puerto Rico. (2) Prior to Hurricane Maria, residents of Vieques were served by an urgent medical care facility, the Susana Centeno Family Health Center, and residents had to travel off-island to obtain medical services, including most types of emergency care because the facility did not have the basic use of x-ray machines, CT machines, EKG machines, ultrasounds, or PET scans. (3) The predominant means of transporting passengers and goods between Vieques and the main island of Puerto Rico is by ferry boat service, and over the years, the efficiency of this service has frequently been disrupted, unreliable, and difficult for cancer patients to endure to receive treatment. Each trip to Ceiba, Puerto Rico, for the cancer patient is an additional out-of-pocket expense ranging from $120 to $200. (4) The United States Military maintained a presence on the eastern and western portions of Vieques for close to 60 years, and used parts of the island as a training range during those years, dropping over 80 million tons of ordnance and other weaponry available to the United States military since World War II. (5) The unintended, unknown, and unavoidable consequences of these exercises were to expose Americans living on the islands to the residue of that weaponry which includes heavy metals and many other chemicals now known to harm human health. (6) According to Government and independent documentation, the island of Vieques has high levels of heavy metals and has been exposed to chemical weapons and toxic chemicals. Since the military activity in Vieques, island residents have suffered from the health impacts from long-term exposure to environmental contamination as a result of 62 years of military operations, and have