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As the Delegate for the Virgin Islands, I represent the University of the Virgin Islands, a land-grant university, and it has skin in the game, as do the territory's small-scale producers who benefit from fully staffed agencies.

This proposal will undermine the integrity of these agencies and their ability to operate, and it was followed by an FY20 Budget Request which proposed cutting the number of ERS employees in half.

Any reforms to USDA's research agencies must have clear benefits to ag research and be conducted in a transparent manner.

Secretary Perdue's claim that the research agencies are better served elsewhere is misconstrued.

The decision to relocate ERS and NIFA lacks transparency and is not supported by an overwhelming majority of the stakeholders who partner with the agencies.

And that is woefully inadequate.

The Virgin Islands qualifies for it, meets the qualifications, Congress and CMS have said we would not receive that.

There are individuals that are presently in the Virgin Islands, maybe in other territories as well, who are just not receiving any health insurance.

Thank you for your consideration and attention to these urgent matters.

We look forward to working together to address the immediate issue of the impending Medicaid fiscal funding cliff.

Unless Congress acts, we will be faced with potentially catastrophic damage to our Medicaid program and our healthcare system.

I love my island--it is my home, and I am committed to working with Congress to create a Medicaid system that all of us can be proud of.

Earlier this month, Governor Rossello submitted Puerto Rico's official Medicaid ask to Congress: $15.1 billion in funding at an 83 percent FMAP for 5 years.

The devastating life-and-death outcomes that we face with the potential loss of this ACA funding justifies an increase in the territory's Medicaid funding block grants.

Medicaid is our people's and our territory's lifeline for medical care services.

We made a difficult decision to deny the referral of this child because we didn't have the local match.

We are requesting a 100 percent Federal Medicaid matching rate be extended to the U.S. Virgin Islands for 2 additional Federal fiscal years.

We believe that there needs to be a permanent statutory fix that addresses the unfair and disparate treatment all territories face in their Medicaid programs along the lines of H.R. 1354, the Territories Health Equity Act.