On the recordJune 25, 2015
As one of the five Members of Congress representing America's offshore territories and as the Representative from the U.S. Virgin Islands, I am disappointed to see the underfunding made to the FY16 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. Aside from the underfunding to environmental protection programs that protect important natural resources and, among a myriad of things, assures Americans have access to clean water, the cuts to this bill come largely at the expense of America's island territories. The Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Marianas have been a part of this great Nation for more than a century. Since then, this country has augmented the support to critical areas of activity by the respective local governments in these territories. This is done, largely in part, through the Interior's territorial assistance activity, in which this bill proposes to underfund by $13,684,000. Mr. Chairman, this is unacceptable. Funding through Interior's territorial assistance activity go toward many important functions in these territories, like capital improvement projects. These capital improvement projects, CIP, funds address a variety of infrastructure needs in the U.S. territories, including critical infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, wastewater, and solid waste systems.…
