Honor and Privilege to Serve the People of Puerto Rico

Floor Speech

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Mrs. GONZALEZ-COLON. Mr. Speaker, for the last eight years, I've had the privilege and honor to serve the people of Puerto Rico as their sole Member of Congress.

During this time, we faced significant challenges. In early September 2017, a few months into my first term, Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Irma, followed two weeks later by Hurricane Maria--the strongest hurricane to make landfall on the Island in over 80 years--which completely devastated our communities, destroyed our infrastructure, and produced the largest power blackout in U.S. history.

In late 2019, Puerto Rico's southern region began experiencing a seismic sequence that ended with a 6.4 magnitude earthquake on January 7th, 2020. This further damaged public and private infrastructure and left residents of the area in a constant state of fear and uncertainty.

And in 2020, like the rest of the world, we were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

These were all formidable challenges for Puerto Rico that needed to be addressed with a strong sense of urgency, and we met them head-on.

Working alongside my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, we secured historic levels of federal funding to assist Puerto Rico's recovery process. These include nearly $73.5 billion in hurricane- relief funding, $1.6 billion to address the impact of the earthquakes, and close to $44.1 billion in pandemic relief allocations.

As we worked to respond to these emergencies, we also had to focus on other competing but equally important priorities. Chief among them was addressing the Medicaid funding gap that provides health care coverage for 1.5 million residents in Puerto Rico.

I'm proud that during my time in Congress we were able to secure $29.5 billion to stabilize Puerto Rico's Medicaid program while increasing the federal matching rate, more recently from 55 to 76 percent.

I'm also proud that we were able to address longstanding disparities under federal programs to help combat poverty and grow the economy. For example, we were able to include Puerto Rico in the Child Tax Credit for families with one or two children, who did not previously qualify, and secured a $600 million annual federal funding allocation to supplement the Island's local Earned Income Tax Credit.

I'm also pleased to have secured $33.7 million in Community Project Funding for 29 local projects across Puerto Rico. And as a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I supported the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, under which Puerto Rico is expected to receive at least $2.2 billion over five years.

I've also introduced legislation to provide the Island equal treatment under critical programs like SNAP, Medicaid and Medicare, SSI, and EITC.

I've led efforts to resolve our political status dilemma and end our territorial status. This is the underlying reason behind most of the social, economic, and fiscal challenges we've faced and what allows the federal government to treat our 3.2 million American citizens unequally under federal laws and programs.

I led negotiations on the Puerto Rico Status Act, which passed the House with bipartisan support in December 2022 and would have authorized a binding plebiscite among the constitutionally viable, nonterritorial status options--statehood or independence.

This bill served as the basis for the local referendum held this past November 5th, in which Puerto Rico supported statehood with 57 percent of the votes. This is the fourth time since 2012 that we have voted to express our desire to become a permanent part of the Union.

Mr. Speaker, these are just a few of the issues I have worked on, but I just want to thank the people of Puerto Rico for giving me the opportunity to serve as their voice in Congress.

I also thank my colleagues, who've worked with me, visited the Island, and have taken the time to understand and support our needs and federal priorities.

I thank my family, especially my husband, Jose, and our children, who inspire me to work harder every day.

There is much to be done and much progress to look forward to in Puerto Rico. As I begin to serve as Governor early next year, I look forward to remaining engaged with Congress to continue advocating for the Island, responsibly expedite the use of recovery funds, and foster economic growth.

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