Madeleine Bordallo: “Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for arranging this hearing on our infrastructure and its effect on…”

The cost of electricity for Puerto Rico residents is nearly twice the national average, while at the same time their GDP per capita and median household income are just half that of the mainland United States.

If we are going to rebuild readiness, we need to ensure that the depot maintenance accounts are fully funded to meet the requirement.

I am concerned that in a year where readiness has been cited as the Department's top priority, the Department's budget request falls well short of meeting the total depot maintenance requirement for the Army and the Marine Corps.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And I hope you don't extract this from my 5 minutes, but there is a native of Guam in the audience today, and I am very proud of her.