How president rob is taking steps to get more help to puerto rico faster by waving restrictions and an obscure law about foreign cargo ships. It was a charge the accusation of being slow to react to hurricane. With those charges being leveled at the trump administration, the white house came out swinging. The white house pushback against criticism that its response to Hurricane Maria has been, as one democratic member of congress put it, ineffective and inexcusably slow. Tom bossert saying some news reports are lagging behind. A lot of the reporting is understandably not wrong but dated. Officials insist response efforts are moving as quickly as possible. 10,000 federal workers including 7200 u. S. Military are on the ground there. Threestar general Jeffrey Buchanan has been sent to oversee the response in the hospital ship uss comfort is teaming for puerto rico. Distribution from the island has been a challenge. We had to remove debris, clear land slides. We have done things like air drops. At the request of puerto ricos governor, President Trump granted a waiver of the jones maritime act to allow foreign flagged vessels to vary supplies from u. S. Ports to puerto rico. The Homeland Security visor insist theres been no lack of capacity to get relief supplies in. I wasnt recommending to the president that he waive the jones act until i got the governors request. Once the governor called, i think we should listen and the president agreed to. The white house was defending the new tax reform plan in the face of criticism its huge tax break for the wealthiest americans. Chief Economic Advisor gary cohn insisting its aimed at middle income americans. A typical family earning 100,000 with two children that has been a standard detector who uses the standard deductions, continues to use the standard deduction, they can expect a tax cut of about 1,000. Critics say the illumination of the state local Tax Deduction could mean middle income families in high tax states like new york, connecticut, california could end up paying more tax. You could find me someone in the country that their taxes may not go down. We have all different types of structures in the tax code. I guarantee you you could find someone, maybe one person. The white house could not say measures like eliminating the alternative minimum tax would not have benefited President Trump who in 2005 paid 31 million in a. M. T. American taxpayers care about what they take home. They care about what they have to spend. Thats what they care about. Thats what i care about. Singlefamily getting back a 1,000 tax cut might care if a billionaire is getting back tens of millions of dollars but gary cohn says when you factor in the state and local Tax Deduction, the amt becomes irrelevant. Bret we are getting ready to hear from the health and Human Services sector tom price as hes apologized for the private flights. Whats the reaction of the white house . We know it was in the works this afternoon when Sarah Huckabee sanders was asked about it. The health and Human Services secretary, former congressman tom price, will be paying back out of his own pocket some 51,000 of more than 400,000 in private charter use. Over the last few months. When Sarah Huckabee sanders was asked about whether or not tom price should be worried about his job, she said we want to wait and see what the outcome of the investigations by not only the investigator Inspector General but also an internal hhs investigation before they make a determination. The president seemed very displeased with what his health and Human Services secretary was engaged in with his travel. It was telling. Other people have fallen out with the president and survived. Maybe tom price will as well. Bret we will see about that. John roberts live on the north lawn. Thanks. As President Trump moves to get more help to puerto rico faster, many on the island continue to struggle just to survive following Hurricane Maria. This is despite the fact that there are supplies on the island already. Garrett tenney is at the port of san juan. A symbol of how fragile the immediate recovery effort will be in puerto rico begins here at san juans main board. 10,000 of these shipping containers filled with desperately needed supplies are sitting on the docks. Its the first problem and what has become a cascading series of supplychain nightmares. Less than 20 of available Truck Drivers are in place to deliver the goods. What we really need is handson to distribute the cargo for those people in need. The impact has been devastating. Its a matter of working on better logistics on how we can start moving things around the island. Governor tells us the driver situation is improving but that more bottlenecks to wait. Impassable roads, a lack of diesel fuel and little to no communication across the island. One obstacle piled on the other thats hindering the humanitarian outreach. We recognize because we are in island things have taken a little bit more time but we are not much more. Adding to the shortages of food, fuel, power is a lack of ready cash to buy those necessities. Most atms are empty. Lines at banks are long. Without electricity, Card Transactions are nonexistent. Some businesses are offering credit and operating the oldfashioned way. Translator ucs collecting bills by hand with cash that we have and selling everything we have for a discount. To those who do not have, we give it to them. Its a matter of helping our community. Further hampering the effort is a lack of reliable information needed to prioritiz prioritize. The communication grid is all but inoperable outside san juan, making contact practically impossible with hardhit rural communities. Translator lots of people are looking for places, trying to get a signal. Word keeps spreading that such and such a place has a signal. We ask, what company has a signal . The government is working getting more drivers on the road but they are in a bit of a race against the clock because some of these containers contain perishable goods like food and medicine that will be lost if they are not delivered soon. Bret Garrett Tenney live in the port of san juan. Thank you. Lets get the latest on the puerto rico effort. Joining me tonight from the white house, Homeland Security advisor tom bossert. Tom, thanks for being here. You said today that some of the reports are lagging. Has the dynamic changed from what we are hearing . Thanks for having me. That dynamic never changes. In terms of reporting but the dynamic on the ground always does change. I freaked earlier this morning the number of hospitals that were open. I updated it again this afternoon. As an example, i will brief now. 51 of the 69 hospitals on the island are open. 41 of 48 Dialysis Centers are open. This is one of the key critical factors. Its something that has changed throughout the day. Old reporting are old footage from earlier tends to give a bad impression. It wasnt wrong at the time it was recorded. Its dated. Thats the challenge for all of us. Bret it is not just democrats who are criticizing a little bit of the effort. Here is senator rubio talking about what he is hearing and seeing. Basically there is no communication, no power, no fuel. No truckers. Youve got container sitting at the port and they cant move it. As the aid comes in, they are having trouble distributing it. They dont have a way to distributed. They dont know where to distribute it and some of it needs to be refrigerated. In other words, its not entirely accurate. Understandably he is pointing out the problem and the challenge of getting commodities into an island, but he is suggesting there is no fuel, no water. Anytime you use terms like no, never, you are wrong. There is quite a bit of fuel and food and water. The challenge is getting it to the middle of the island, the mountainous areas. Its a logjam we are breaking and making progress. We are getting in front of the curve. Bret you waited until, and we heard in johns piece, the governor of puerto rico made the request to change the jones act. You didnt think it was necessary. Thats correct. It wasnt a necessity at the time the president waved it. The idea of waving it was to make sure it didnt become an impediment. Up until the time of the waiver, we had american ships providing americans applies to american citizens, and we were outstripping in terms of capacity the needs of the island. What we ran into was a landbased distribution logjam. The waiver issue wasnt the primary impediment. It was misunderstood by some. That remains the case. Bret you are deploying the u. S. Military and the military is involved. Threestar general, as we heard, becoming part of the operation. Not leading it overall . We had a fourstar admiral in charge based off the fourstar Navy Component commander was leading the effor effort. With norad backing it. We just saw a transition, perhaps misunderstood, a threestar brigadier out of fort sam houston. The threestar provides the command structure and the support forward operation. His one star is on the ground and the one star general has the command structure, support, authority command all Ground Forces to break the logjams. Bret last thing, i know what you are saying and i hear what youre saying about whats being deployed there and whats happening. Geraldo rivera is on the ground and talking to people like this lady about what she is seeing and feeling. Its completely going crazy. People are fighting for water. They are fighting for diapers, anything they can find. We dont have water, running water. We dont have electricity. We need help. We needed a lot of help and we are not honestly there hasnt been any help coming for us yet. Bret that her experience. What do tell those people tonight . Obviously they will be seeing these images and hearing from geraldo and others on the ground. Is a terrible condition for a lot of people in need of a lot of support right now. I tell them the federal government is on the way with increasing over the material and people to help distribute the materials. I tell them governor rossello is in command of the island. Fortunately we dont have any reports of unrest or civil disturbance in a way that is a loss of control. Thats a testament to the Law Enforcement on the island but also to the National Guard troops deployed before and during and after the storm. What i would tell her is her heart and soul comes through in the plea for help. The president hears it and the president is directing all the resources of the United States of america to help in puerto rico. Bret we appreciate your time. Another fox exclusive, health and Human Services secretary tom price joins me in studio to explain his private flights. President trumps reaction and what he is doing about it today. Thats next. What did we do before phones . They save us from getting lost, getting hungry, and getting tired of places like this. Phones changed everything shouldnt the way pay for them change too . Introducing xfinity mobile. Where you can pay for data by the gig, and share it across all of your lines. No one else lets you do that. See how much you can save when you pay by the gig. Xfinity mobile. Its a new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile. Com. Bret this is a fox news alert. There is considerable talk about what will happen to health and Human Services secretary tom price. President trump has that hes not happy with the reports about prices travel on private aircraft. Secretary price joins us in studio with his side of the story. I wanted to give you a chance to say what hhs is doing about puerto rico before return to the aircraft situation. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everybody who are victims of harvey, irma, maria. Puerto rico, particularly challenges. Hhs has people on the ground. We are doing everything we can. The challenge is, as you heard from tom bossert, getting supplies to the people and people to the supplies or facilities. Bret today you said you think you still have the confidence of President Trump. Why do you think that . I continue to work, we Work Together on the issue of the hurricanes, Global Health security, working on bret has he talked to you about this . He has an ses he has said publicly, he wasnt happy. He expressed that to mean very clearly. Bret how so . Just that way. I wont divulge any personal conversations ive had with the president but he wasnt happy. Bret he put a statement out. You say you apologize and you are going to write a check. Bret i think the important point, these trips were official business and within budget and approved by the normal processes ever gathered administration has gone through. Prior to the trip, not after. We have heard concerns. I have heard the criticisms. In order to make certain people appreciate my respect for the taxpayer is as strong as it can be and always has been in my 40 year career, we think its important to do a number of things. One is to say there will be no private air charters at hhs Going Forward. Second is to cooperate fully. With the Inspector General. There is a review going on and i called for an internal review within the department itself and finally to pay for my portion of those trips. This is unprecedented, never been done, to our understanding, before by secretary in spite of the fact that previous administrations about secretaries that flew an awful lot. Still unsure. You say in a statement the taxpayers wont pay a dime for my seat on those planes. You are writing a check, we understand, 51,887. The total cost is estimated at more than 400,000 for the 26 flights since may. Is that okay . As i said, there is an ongoing review being done by the Inspector General. Isaac its important to wait for that. I think its important to wait for that. All the trips have been approved, approved by the Legal Department and the Administration Department within hhs. Deemed to be appropriate official travel. And we need to let the Inspector General act. Bret what were you thinking at those moments . Some of these fights clearly were the places that had commercial air possibilities. One flight to philadelphia, you drive 45 minutes to dulles, get on a private flight to fly to philadelphia for 25,000. You take amtrak, you could be there in an hour and half for a hundred bucks. That particular trip, we had a meeting on the hurricanes i needed to be at and we had a meeting in the afternoon at the white house. These trips were approved through the normal process. It was deemed appropriate and that was the necessary way to make my other obligations within the department. Bret clearly the white house and the president have concerns. Take a listen to some reaction. Im not happy. I will tell you im not happy. I said yesterday hes not thrilled, not happy with the actions. We are looking at the issue. Does secretary price expect to keep his job in this administration . I think the president addressed this yesterday. Were going through the process and conduct a full review and see what happens. Tom price as he had zero confidence. Is that true, mr. President . Bret he didnt answer that that. Are you worried . I work at the pleasure of the president. The president is a remarkable leader. Im incredibly privileged to serve in his cabinet and work on behalf of the American People. I look forward to gaining, regaining the trust the American People, some of them may have lost. And not only regain the trust of the American People about the administration. Bret mr. Secretary, as a georgia congressman, you touted the fiscal responsibility. You really went after others for wasting money. You lead the charge against nancy pelosis, what was called her air force back then and private flights for congressional lawmakers. I guess some people are asking, why didnt you see the problem in the 26 private flights . These were ten trips with 26 different legs. We have a very ambitious agenda and we were trying our doggone best to accomplish the issue mn and the president s agenda. Clearly we werent sensitive to the taxpayer which is why ive taken the actions ive taken. Bret you know the press obviously circles this. I know the investigation is ongoing. There is a buzzfeed story out that you wanted to reopen the departments executive dining room. Is that true . No. What we did was we reopen a dining room for the political and career folks in the department on a different floor so they have more options to eat lunch and chat and work during lunch. Bret when you say you are concerned about the taxpayer dollars, how do you convince people thats true after they look at whats happened . Clearly the demonstration by paying for my portions of these trips, i think its a huge demonstration. Its unique. Its never been done before, unprecedented, as im told. Second is a suspension of all private air charter travel. By me or anybody in the department at this point. Cooperating fully with the review being done by the Inspector General. During the kinds of things, the actions and activities that will demonstrate we can hopefully regain that trust. And do our work on the behalf of the American People. Incredible issues at health and Human Services. Our charge is broad with the cdc, cms, nih, remarkable institutions over which we have authority and leadership response abilities. The men and women at hhs, 80,000 employees literally around the world are doing phenomenal work. They are doing everything to