Nydia Velázquez

Today, the polls are telling us that close to 70 percent of the American people believe that there is climate change.

Inaction on this is not a choice, it is not an option.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And thank you so much both Mr. Grijalva, our Chairman, and you for holding this important hearing.

With low unemployment rates, small employers are reporting difficulty finding qualified and skilled workers.

America's economy has improved since the Great Recession and unemployment is at an 18 year low.

The number of applications is low, very low, and then the fact that only in 2 weeks, the last 2 weeks, 400 had applied shows the need for extending the program.

Just last week, the Government of Puerto Rico finally acknowledged that Maria actually killed nearly 3,000 Puerto Ricans after 9 months of insisting that the official death count was 64.

The drastic cuts that have been made to programs like HOME, CDBG, Section 202 Program, Project-Based Section 8, many of which successfully combined Federal funding with private sector dollars have exacerbated the lack of affordable housing…

Puerto Rico is not property, and Puerto Ricans are not property of anyone.

However, these undeniable mistakes and overwhelming challenges do not mean that the Federal Government should take over PREPA.

Make no mistake, I will not sit here and try to sugarcoat the failures we have seen at PREPA.

I agree with you that we need to de-politicize that process.

Unfortunately, the Trump tax law did little to alleviate the twin problems of uncertainty and complexity.

Many others have yet to see many meaningful advantages at all.

Unfortunately, it has become increasingly clear that the lion's share of benefits from this law will fall disproportionately to the largest corporations and the very wealthy.

Representative Velazquez has called for Congress to commission a study on the health impacts of deteriorating building conditions for public housing residents.

Earlier this year, language of my bill, 4792, the Small Business Access to Capital After a Natural Disaster Act, was enacted into law.

I think that voice should be a permanent voice in the work we do at the SEC.

I offered legislation that was included in S. 2155, and that legislation is known as the U.S. Territories Investor Protection Act closes a huge loophole that allow UBS and other financial firms operating in Puerto Rico and in any other…

But this bill takes that option away from us.

As New Yorkers, we have worked hard to find other energy sources.

We do not want to let that happen in New York.

This is irresponsible in the short term, putting our healthy coastline at risk.

For those of us in New York, this bill threatens to jeopardize long-term investments in clean energy for our children and families.

Our public lands and waters should be managed for the benefit of all Americans.