Jenniffer González-Colón

Thank you, Chairman Wenstrup and Chairman Roe for allowing me, as the only Member representing 3.4 million American citizens in Puerto Rico, to have a voice on behalf of our veterans.

I hope the allocation of funds that were included in the third supplemental are going to be enough for all the VA clinics and the National Cemetery.

I want to thank all the personnel from the VA that helped us out during this hurricane season.

We need to fight to get Puerto Rico out of the overseas definition in terms of tricare prime.

The VA and the Congress just approved 11.1 million dollars to mobile units and medical service including transportation for the areas impacted by the hurricanes

Thank you, all of you for being here today and thank you Chairman for your time, and I yield back.

Thank you to our veteran population and to all of you that are in the audience today.

Thank you for your leadership, allowing us, and the small businesses in Puerto Rico to recover.

How are you going to treat the territories as a foreign country and then impose those taxes to our companies after two of these major hurricanes.

We need to give the people of Puerto Rico, the people of the Virgin Islands, what they as U.S. citizens deserve so they can have an appropriate healthcare system.

Congressman Serrano and myself filed bill H.R. 4251 to amend the Stafford Act that will provide for all the resources to have a more resilient and efficient energy system after the disaster.

The treatment for the territories need to be equal as any other state.

It is fair that taxpayers would want to know, that the process is being managed transparently and responsibly.

But there is much more left to do, in both the short- and the long-term recovery and reconstruction of the islands.

We should not expect Puerto Rico to have a first-class economy when we treat Puerto Ricans as second-class citizens.

I also want to thank and take the opportunity to welcome Governor Ricardo Rossello and Governor Kenneth Mapp for their presence here, who have worked tirelessly for the last month and a half in an effort to bring some sense of normalcy to…

We need, as Congress, to make many changes in a lot of Federal laws to provide for those services to the island.

The greatest heroes working this project are the people of Puerto Rico.

I think it is important for Congress and all Members from the House and the Senate to actually go there.

That is the reason we need to look beyond immediate response for bridges, power grid, and roof tarps under the Corps of Engineers.

We still have 70 percent of our island without power, 20 percent without running water, and 20 percent without access to networks.

I have a voice, but I don't have a vote. That is the reason this hearing is so important for Puerto Rico.

We have a big problem here, and the treatment the territories are receiving in Medicaid. That is the bottom line of the problem.

We think we should improve the way Puerto Rico businesses are making contracts directly for their government.

The situation of the economic crisis in Puerto Rico, it is very important to fix, and having small business empowered to do that I think is the key to solve part of that situation.