I am also an original co-sponsor of H.R. 1354, the Territories Health Equity Act, legislation introduced by Congresswoman Plaskett.

Approximately 600,000 lives. And that will be if we can keep the program viable for Puerto Rico.

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

And I commend Mr. Soto for always being an original co-sponsor of all those bills.

So, more than half a million American citizens living in Puerto Rico, they are not covered by Medicaid full programs as they were in the states just because of the lack of funding of the treatment of a state of Puerto Rico.

All these additional sources of Federal funding for Puerto Rico's Medicaid program will expire in September of this year.

We would like to remove the cap altogether, and we would like territories to be treated as states.

the territories do not receive any DSH money. And that will help our hospital.

This underfunding contributes to larger systemic problems, including lower provider reimbursement rates and provider shortages.

Thank you, Madam Chair, for holding this hearing and for all of us that are here today, I think this is a remarkable event and achievement.

I'm really grateful for all the help NOAA and the rest of the agencies gave to the island.

when you've got no radars, no commercial planes flying to the island, no water, no electricity, and no telecom, it was a complete theater of war, what we experienced at that time.

I couldn't finish to say thank you to the agencies that helped us out in the moment of need.

That never happened before, so I thought that was better coordination before the hurricane could hit us, and better information.

Is your Department supporting this kind of bill?

I do understand that the Administration held a significant offshore wind lease in December of last year for Massachusetts totaling $405 million in revenue.

As Puerto Rico's sole representative in Congress, I am committed to ensuring the Department and the National Park Service have the necessary resources to protect and conserve this cultural treasure.

This figure represents an increase of over $12.2 million from FY 2017.