Congress must act before September 30, 2019, to avert catastrophic damage to our healthcare system and the health and well-being of the people of Puerto Rico.

I think this is a great opportunity to have the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Natural Resources Committee jointly doing a hearing about a very important issue for the United States security.

the first-ever trade agreement from the U.S. that incorporates environmental provisions into the trade agreement itself.

We are moving forward on nutrient reduction work.

It's hard to overstate the importance of this critical resource to northeast Ohio.

I would like to continue working with the Committee to ensure it maintains construction work at a steady pace so that these clinics are ready to receive veteran patients as soon as possible.

This is commonsense legislation that should be swiftly enacted.

I appreciate the opportunity to discuss some of the issues currently impacting the veteran population in Puerto Rico.

It is time for Congress to act to provide the VA with the same reimbursement authority for urban Indian health centers that already exists for the Indian Health Service, tribes, and tribal organizations.

I would urge the Committee to encourage the VA to work with the Indian Health Service to provide greater access to culturally appropriate services for Native American Veterans that UIOs are in a unique position to provide.

I have sponsored legislation, H.R.1354, the Territories Health Equity Act of 2019, joined by my colleagues from the territories, and others, to correct the inequities faced by the territories across all of the federal health programs.

We may think that the funding we are providing to each insular area meets their needs and their capacity to use the money.

This health extenders package is good news for the Marianas and all the insular areas.

I want to thank this committee for taking a critical action last week by passing the Territories Health Care Improvement Act.

According to analysis undertaken by the Department of Health and Human Services, Americans living in poverty have significantly constrained budgets that limits their ability to pay out-of-pocket healthcare costs.

Thanks also to Mr. Soto and Mr. Bilirakis of the committee for understanding the urgency of this insular Medicaid crisis.

We must confront the difficult reality that Americans living in the territories are U.S. citizens that have been neglected and allowed to fall behind.

Those in poverty have literally no available income after they pay for their most basic necessities each month.