It should not be surprising that 105 years after becoming U.S. citizens by birth, Puerto Ricans want to vote for President and to have voting representation in Congress.

I want to thank you for holding the 'Puerto Rico's Post-Disaster Reconstruction & Power Grid Development' hearing last week.

I am pleased to report that Puerto Rico is emerging from a challenging period with strength and optimism into a new era of stability evidenced by the island's economic upswing.

The people of Puerto Rico voted and chose statehood as their path forward.

My constituents hear about all those billions, and they ask a simple question, where are they?

What is being done with the billions of dollars in aid? What are the plans? When will we see results?

Canceling that contract is, to me, a nightmare.

Congress should call for a vote on the political future of Puerto Rico and commit to implementing the will of the majority.

We respectfully ask this Committee and Congress to help us address some additional challenges that we are facing in our ongoing post-disaster reconstruction.

I am disappointed that PREPA and the Energy Bureau are not here today.

Last month, I formally requested emergency assistance from FEMA to stabilize our power system by providing additional generation assets and accelerating work on our transmission and distribution grid.