[Senate Hearing 116-374]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                       S. Hrg. 116-374

                   THE IMPACTS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN 
                               THE TERRITORIES

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                              COMMITTEE ON
                      ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                     ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                             JUNE 30, 2020

                               __________

[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


                       Printed for the use of the
               Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
        
                               __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
40-920                      WASHINGTON : 2021                     
          
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               COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES

                    LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska, Chairman
JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming               JOE MANCHIN III, West Virginia
JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho                RON WYDEN, Oregon
MIKE LEE, Utah                       MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
STEVE DAINES, Montana                BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
BILL CASSIDY, Louisiana              DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan
CORY GARDNER, Colorado               MARTIN HEINRICH, New Mexico
CINDY HYDE-SMITH, Mississippi        MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii
MARTHA McSALLY, Arizona              ANGUS S. KING, JR., Maine
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee           CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada
JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota

                      Brian Hughes, Staff Director
                      Lucy Murfitt, Chief Counsel
                  Isaac Edwards, Deputy Chief Counsel
                 Renae Black, Democratic Staff Director
                Sam E. Fowler, Democratic Chief Counsel
         Melanie Thornton, Democratic Professional Staff Member
                     Darla Ripchensky, Chief Clerk
                            
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                           OPENING STATEMENTS

                                                                   Page
Murkowski, Hon. Lisa, Chairman and a U.S. Senator from Alaska....     1
Manchin III, Hon. Joe, Ranking Member and a U.S. Senator from 
  West Virginia..................................................     2

                               WITNESSES

Sablan, Hon. Gregorio Kilili Camacho, Congressman--Northern 
  Mariana Islands, U.S. House of Representatives.................     4
Radewagen, Hon. Aumua Amata, Congresswoman--American Samoa, U.S. 
  House of Representatives.......................................    10
Plaskett, Hon. Stacey, Congresswoman--U.S. Virgin Islands, U.S. 
  House of Representatives.......................................    18
Gonzalez-Colon, Hon. Jenniffer, Congresswoman--Puerto Rico, U.S. 
  House of Representatives.......................................    27
San Nicolas, Hon. Michael F.Q., Congressman--Guam, U.S. House of 
  Representatives................................................    38

          ALPHABETICAL LISTING AND APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED

Bryan, Jr., Hon. Albert:
    Letter for the Record........................................   137
Garced, Hon. Wanda Vazquez:
    Letter for the Record........................................   157
Gonzalez-Colon, Hon. Jenniffer:
    Opening Statement............................................    27
    Chart entitled ``Impact of COVID-19 Nutrition Assistance 
      Program (NAP) in Puerto Rico''.............................    28
    Chart entitled ``Pharmaceutical and Medical Device 
      Manufacturing in Puerto Rico''.............................    29
    Written Testimony............................................    32
    Responses to Questions for the Record........................   112
Guerrero, Hon. Lourdes A. Leon:
    Letter for the Record........................................   161
Manchin III, Hon. Joe:
    Opening Statement............................................     2
Murkowski, Hon. Lisa:
    Opening Statement............................................     1
Northern Marianas Business Alliance Corporation:
    Letter for the Record........................................   165
Plaskett, Hon. Stacey:
    Opening Statement............................................    18
    Written Testimony............................................    20
    Responses to Questions for the Record........................   103
Radewagen, Hon. Aumua Amata Coleman:
    Opening Statement............................................    10
    Written Testimony............................................    12
    Responses to Questions for the Record........................    98
Sablan, Hon. Gregorio Kilili Camacho:
    Opening Statement............................................     4
    Written Testimony............................................     7
    Responses to Questions for the Record........................    84
San Nicolas, Hon. Michael F.Q.:
    Opening Statement............................................    38
    Written Testimony............................................    40
    Responses to Questions for the Record........................   133
Torres, Hon. Ralph DLG.:
    Statement for the Record.....................................   171

 
        THE IMPACTS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN THE TERRITORIES

                              ----------                              


                         TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 2020

                                       U.S. Senate,
                 Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:42 p.m. in Room 
SD-366, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Lisa Murkowski, 
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.

           OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. LISA MURKOWSKI, 
                    U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA

    The Chairman. Good afternoon, everyone. The Committee will 
come to order. It is good to be able to welcome you all this 
afternoon, although Congresswoman Radewagen, I think, it is 
probably your good morning there, so we will just say good day 
to everyone.
    As folks may know, we have had a whole series of hearings 
on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past several 
weeks. We have looked at the impact on the energy sector, on 
our mineral supply chains, on wildfire preparedness, but today 
we are going to take a closer look at the virus' impact on the 
territories, at the implementation of existing law aimed at 
mitigating and preventing its spread and potential legislation 
that could benefit the territories in the future.
    All of our states face challenges in fighting the spread 
and the impact of COVID-19, but I think it is fair to say that 
the territories face additional hurdles. You have limited 
capacity to handle a health pandemic, to the economies with 
fewer sources of revenue that are severely harmed by the 
economic shutdown, particularly those that are dependent upon 
tourism. And that is where I can certainly relate to USVI, to 
Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, CMNI. These are all areas 
that see a flux of folks with tourism. Although the territories 
have limited ports of entry for the virus to arrive at their 
islands, the reality is that the virus spread well before 
travel restrictions were in place and, of course, once it is on 
an island it is difficult to contain. American Samoa is the 
only jurisdiction to keep the virus from reaching their shores, 
and while we certainly hope that remains the case, we don't 
take anything for granted nowadays.
    Congress has passed four funding bills to address the 
COVID-19 outbreak and while I know these bills do not contain 
everything that everyone wanted to have included, we did seek 
to ensure that the measures work for the territories where 
federal programs are not necessarily implemented in the same 
manner as the states. The Families First Coronavirus Response 
Act increased Medicaid funding for the territories and lowered 
the territory's Medicaid match rate. It provided additional 
SNAP funding and supplemental funding for those territories 
that utilize block grant funding instead of traditional SNAP. 
The CARES Act included language to allow all territories to 
participate in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program 
regardless of whether they have unemployment insurance 
programs. In addition to financial assistance for governments 
through the Coronavirus Relief Fund, it included an additional 
$55 million through DOI's Office of Insular Affairs for COVID-
19 needs.
    I think we are probably going to hear this afternoon that 
more is needed and know that we will be working on that as we 
head into July and this next work period coming up. My hope is 
that today's hearing will provide us with a better 
understanding of what has worked so far, what needs to be 
adjusted and what additional measures should be considered. I 
am pleased that we have all five representatives of the 
territories with us today to lead this discussion. Before I 
introduce our witnesses, I will turn to Ranking Member Manchin 
for his remarks and comments this morning.
    Senator Manchin.

              STATEMENT OF HON. JOE MANCHIN III, 
                U.S. SENATOR FROM WEST VIRGINIA

    Senator Manchin. Thank you, Chair Murkowski, for holding 
the hearing to discuss the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in 
the U.S. territories. I want to thank all of our honorable 
guests for being here to help us through this so we can help 
you. To date, the Coronavirus pandemic has taken the lives of 
over 125,000 of our fellow Americans, including 166 individuals 
from the territories, and our heart goes out to the grieving 
families across the country and around the world. The scope of 
the Committee's jurisdiction includes the five territories of 
Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the 
Northern Mariana Islands. I welcome our panel of witnesses that 
represent these five territories in the United States House of 
Representatives and appreciate all of you joining us to share 
how the pandemic has impacted your island communities.
    Each of these governments face unique challenges based on 
their geographic location. Import reliance, limited financial 
resources and different treatment under federal programs, these 
circumstances create both unique problems and risk of continued 
challenges throughout the pandemic. The island economies are 
taking a hard hit as a result of the pandemic, and I sure don't 
need to tell any of you that. The territories were quick to 
react to the spread of COVID-19 and by mid-March had instituted 
stay-at-home orders, travel restrictions and enhanced screening 
in an effort to keep the virus under control. In fact, American 
Samoa is the only place in the United States that has had no 
confirmed cases of COVID-19. And in 1918 they were able to 
avoid the Spanish Flu pandemic in large part due to swift 
action on travel restrictions and quarantine.
    It should come as no surprise that the beautiful 
territories are heavily dependent on tourism, but tourism has 
come to a halt as we attempt to flatten the curve. 
Unfortunately, this will not change anytime soon as we continue 
to urge social distancing and discourage travel during the 
ongoing global pandemic. This year, adding insult to injury, 
the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration is 
predicting a busy hurricane season in the Atlantic in the midst 
of the pandemic. The territories have been hit by severe 
natural disasters including hurricanes, typhoons and 
earthquakes in recent years. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin 
Islands are still recovering from the 2017 hurricanes that 
wreaked havoc in the islands and caused over $140 billion in 
damages.
    Hurricane and disaster preparation are crucial during this 
time of year and especially this year given we have a global 
pandemic on our hands too. This will require an entirely 
different approach from both emergency managers and the public. 
Although the local and Federal Government have been working 
hard to recover and rebuild, more needs to be done to prepare 
for natural disasters amid COVID-19. Over the past few months, 
Congress has passed four pieces of legislation providing 
authority and funding necessary for COVID-19 relief and 
recovery efforts. This is a result of over $2 trillion in new 
direct spending for the U.S. Department of Treasury, the Small 
Business Administration, the Department of Health and Human 
Services and many other federal agencies and entities. We 
worked hard to ensure the territories were included and 
eligible for the funding and the various federal programs 
engaged in the response to the pandemic. For example, the 
territories received $2.5 billion in the Coronavirus Relief 
Fund, $2.2 billion in the Paycheck Protection Program, $35.5 
million in the Provider Relief Fund, $55 million in the Office 
of Insular Affairs' Technical Assistance Program, direct 
payments to individuals and families and additional funding 
from other federal agencies and entities engaged in the 
pandemic response.
    While there have been some economic relief success stories, 
I know our work is far from over and I know you know it too as 
we continue to hear from our families, small business owners, 
non-profits, the local governments, health care providers and 
frontline workers across the country who are not getting the 
help that they desperately need now. I look forward to learning 
more from our witnesses about the impacts our island 
communities are facing in the unpredictable global pandemic. I 
am hopeful that we can work together to create and respond to 
the challenges facing the territories and find commonsense, 
bipartisan solutions that lay the foundation for a strong, 
sustainable economic growth for many years to come.
    Thank you, Madam Chairman, and I look forward to hearing 
from our witnesses.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator.
    It is, indeed, a pleasure to be able to welcome you to the 
Committee, back to the Committee for several of you. Those of 
you who have walked the long distance from the House of 
Representatives, we appreciate that. We also recognize that we 
have the ability now to not only have you live and in person, 
but we can also do things virtually. So to have members that 
are either in their office in Washington, DC, or in their home 
offices in their districts in a territory like American Samoa, 
we are pleased to be able to accommodate via this venue. I am 
pleased to be able to, again, welcome you all and look forward 
to how you can educate us on the issues that have so directly 
impacted your constituents.
    We will begin this afternoon, just going off of the order 
on the witness list. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho 
Sablan, who is the Congressman from the Northern Mariana 
Islands, will begin our testimony. He will be followed by 
Congresswoman Amata Coleman Radewagen and, as I mentioned, the 
Congresswoman is in American Samoa this morning. We have here 
in the Committee room, Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett with the 
U.S. Virgin Islands. We welcome you back to the Committee, 
thank you. Congresswoman Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon from Puerto 
Rico, we are pleased that you are back before the Committee 
again. And Congressman Michael San Nicolas from Guam, we 
appreciate that you, as well, have joined us this afternoon.
    I am going to ask everyone to try to limit your comments to 
about five minutes. You are from the House side, so you are 
used to doing things in one minute, so we are giving you five 
times the talking time. We will then have an opportunity for 
questions, not only from those of us here, but those members 
that are also online. Your full statements will be included as 
part of the record. So let us first begin with Congressman 
Sablan. If you can give us the perspective from the Northern 
Mariana Islands, and welcome to you.

STATEMENT OF HON. GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN, CONGRESSMAN--
    NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

    Mr. Sablan. Well, thank you very much, Madam Chair, thanks 
to you and Ranking Member Manchin and the members of the 
Committee for taking the initiative to hold today's hearing. 
Moreover, thank you for the 12 years of attention and support 
you have all given to the Northern Mariana Islands. Thanks as 
well to your constituents and all the American people for the 
extraordinary generosity to the people of the Northern Mariana 
Islands, especially in this time of unprecedented crisis.
    This hearing is about how Congress responds to the 
pandemic, but even before Congress' response could reach them, 
the people I represent and Marianas government officials had to 
take action. They did what was needed to be safe, and they 
succeeded.
    We had two deaths initially, 30 cases total, but have now 
gone for 22 days with no new cases. So far we are keeping COVID 
at bay. The Marianas have a unique advantage in a pandemic; we 
can seal ourselves off from the rest of the world. As a matter 
of fact, all cases are reported on Saipan. There have been no 
reported cases of infection on Tinian and Rota or from the 
three partially inhabited islands of Pagan, Agrihan and 
Alamagan.
    The flipside, however, is the disadvantage we face in 
reviving an economy that depends, as you said, almost entirely 
on high volume tourism. How can we welcome back visitors to the 
islands while ensuring those visitors are not bringing disease? 
Eventually, if there's a vaccine, we could return to some 
semblance of the old normal, as long as visitors could reliably 
certify they were vaccinated. But that is a big ``if.'' I think 
we must face the reality that we may never again exclusively 
base our economy on short-term, mass tourism and find 
alternatives. For instance:
    --Our robust cable connections and the competitive 
            advantage of our time zone, just this month the 
            Colorado-based InteliSecure, Inc. began hiring for 
            a cybersecurity operation in the Northern Marianas.
    --We could grow our existing educational facilities which 
            already attract long-term-stay students from Korea 
            and other Asian locations.
    --We could obtain new classes of visas that would permit 
            longer-term, second homeowners in the Marianas.
    Above all, and I always say this because we have no 
extractable resources--no oil or gold as in, say, Alaska, Madam 
Chair--we must relentlessly invest in our human resources, 
because with the better-trained and more educated population, 
the more likely that entrepreneurial ideas will emerge that 
will grow wealth and well-being.
    And at the same time we nurture new sources of income, we 
can also reduce our expenses. We can become even more energy 
independent and more self-sustaining when it comes to food.
    Governor Torres has recently taken the initiative. He 
brought the Marianas government and community leaders together 
in April to begin to search for the answer to questions of 
where we go from here and what steps we need to take. The two 
action items the Governor initially identified for Congress, we 
are already addressing: direct aid to the Commonwealth 
government (the CARES Act provided $36 million to cover 
unbudgeted pandemic costs, for example) and a waiver of local 
match for FEMA grants. But there will be more for Congress to 
do. For the long-term, to facilitate economic changes the 
Marianas decides on, whether that means new classes of visas, 
support for energy independence or modernizing infrastructure. 
In the near-term, to prop up individuals, small business and 
the local government, all of which had incomes shredded by the 
pandemic, and always, Congress must direct resources to health 
care, to local providers and to researchers in national labs so 
that this disease does not overwhelm us.
    Congress has already taken extraordinary action in response 
to the Coronavirus crisis and the territories have not been 
left behind: 414 businesses in the Marianas are receiving $37 
million through the Paycheck Protection Program, $70 million 
has been initially set up for the Pandemic Unemployment 
Assistance, $49 million has been credited to Marianas' 
taxpayers in Economic Impact Payments, and our schools are 
receiving in excess of $30 million. We are eligible for the 
range of grants provided by the Families First and CARES Acts 
for health care, child care and food aid. And, as mentioned, 
the Commonwealth government received $36 million to cover 
unbudgeted costs.
    But we cannot be lulled into believing the worst is over. 
In World War II, America did not declare victory after the 
Battle of Midway. There were years, still long years of 
struggle ahead. There could well be years of struggle before us 
now to ward off the Coronavirus and rebuild economically, but 
if there is one legislation that could unleash the help we need 
to get us through this crisis, that is the HEROES Act that the 
House wrote and passed. The bill builds on policies Congress 
previously enacted in the Families First and CARES Acts to help 
American families, businesses and state and local governments 
through this crisis. My fellow Delegates and I were listened to 
when the HEROES Act was drafted and passed in the House. We 
made sure our areas are provided for in measure equal to the 
needs we face.
    So I close by respectfully urging the Senate to take up the 
HEROES Act immediately, because this struggle is just starting 
and is far from over.
    Thank you for holding today's hearing and for the 
opportunity to testify. Thank you always for the care and 
attention you all have given to the American citizens residing 
in the territories. I look forward to working with you to 
ensure the territories and all of America find our way through 
this pandemic. Thank you. I went over my time.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Sablan follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    The Chairman. Congressman, thank you. I appreciate your 
comments this afternoon.
    Let us now proceed to Congresswoman Radewagen.

    STATEMENT OF HON. AUMUA AMATA RADEWAGEN, CONGRESSWOMAN--
         AMERICAN SAMOA, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

    Mrs. Radewagen. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman and Ranking 
Member Manchin for holding this hearing today. I appreciate the 
work the ENR Committee does on behalf of American Samoa and all 
the territories, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to 
testify here today.
    Let me begin by saying that the initial response to the 
COVID-19 pandemic, at least in American Samoa, has been very 
positive. Both Congress and the Trump Administration have made 
great efforts to include the territories in these massive 
response efforts the past few months. I've included the full 
funding highlights along with my written testimony and to 
suffice it to say, American Samoa has received well over $100 
million in much needed relief funding and grants through direct 
aid to our local ASG operations, stimulus checks, PPP and EIDL 
loans and forthcoming PUA and unemployment assistance payments, 
all for which we are extremely grateful.
    With swift bipartisan Congressional funding and rapid 
implementation by President Trump's Administration, American 
Samoa and the country have avoided a much worse fate in this 
two-sided COVID war on both the health and economic fronts. We 
thank God everyday American Samoa has remained virus-free, but 
we're hardly immune to the economic fallout. We're in the same 
boat as the rest of the country with disruption to our 
churches, schools, small businesses and local government 
revenues as a result. We've had no commercial air travel to and 
from the islands since March. So due to these logistical 
problems, distribution of aid has had its challenges. I'm 
deeply thankful to Treasury, DOI, SBA, HHS, FEMA and the other 
agencies for working to overcome these long-distance challenges 
since we're more than 7,000 miles away. So please keep us in 
mind as Congress considers additional measures in response to 
the ongoing pandemic and to promote economic recovery.
    There are several points I want to highlight, and my 
written testimony provides further details on these priority 
health and economic needs. More COVID testing and tracing 
support is needed. Continued healthcare resiliency and capacity 
support in the areas of testing and tracing will be needed for 
American Samoa to reopen safely and prepare for future crisis. 
Support for CDC initiatives are vital as well. We welcomed 
Congress granting us the full Medicaid funding formula and ask 
that the cap be lifted as well to attract more services and 
physicians. LBJ Hospital improvements are needed as the Army 
Corps report to Congress pointed out.
    We're grateful to this Committee's directing DOI to study 
the cost of repairing and replacing our only hospital, LBJ 
Tropical Medical Center. The Army Corps report outlines 
millions are needed for LBJ's modernization. Long-term funding 
mechanisms need to be looked at by this Committee as Congress 
looks at providing essential and emergency healthcare 
capabilities and funding for the future. An increase to the 
annual ASG operations at DOI OIA is needed to help us further 
plan and design an effective modernization in accord with the 
Army Corps findings.
    More unemployment assistance is needed. Pandemic 
Unemployment Assistance (PUA) payments of $600 expire July 31, 
but applications locally are just now being processed since we 
have no local unemployment program. So I thank Secretary Scalia 
and the U.S. DOL team for their implementation efforts to date. 
Please include American Samoa in any modification that extends 
and expands the PUA payments to all our valid workers under 
local law.
    30A extension is needed. I encourage you to support 
multiyear continuation of the 30A American Samoa Economic 
Development Credit. Our sole remaining tuna cannery, two others 
have left for cheap foreign labor, it's nearly 20 percent of 
the workforce at 3,000+ jobs, and it relies heavily on the 30A 
tax credit. We cannot diversify our local economy without a 
five-year minimum extension. No business will invest in the 
developing territory when a job creation credit expires every 
year and is always uncertain of being renewed. We also need 30A 
to be included in any stimulus tax credit provision or 
qualifying list under IRS Section 38 or otherwise as well.
    Finally, increasing the highway funding formula for the 
territories and providing additional grant opportunities for 
seawall construction and safer ports should be a part of any 
broad infrastructure stimulus.
    In closing, I want to thank our Governor and our healthcare 
workers and first responders during this crisis and thank our 
military and note that American Samoa has one of the highest 
rates of service in the Army per capita and the highest rate of 
service per capita in NFL linemen and proudly play in college 
at West Virginia and all over. It takes a real tough Samoan to 
be a mountaineer in a lavalava.
    Thank you, Chairman Murkowski, Ranking Member Manchin and 
Committee members for your time today. God bless.
    [The prepared statement of Mrs. Radewagen follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    The Chairman. Thank you, Congresswoman. I was wondering 
where you were taking that picture with the NFL lineman.
    Let us now turn to Congresswoman Plaskett. Thank you for 
joining us this afternoon. Give us the view from U.S. Virgin 
Islands, please.

 STATEMENT OF HON. STACEY PLASKETT, CONGRESSWOMAN--U.S. VIRGIN 
             ISLANDS, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

    Ms. Plaskett. Thank you so much, Chairwoman Murkowski and 
Ranking Member Manchin. You also have testimony submitted by 
Governor Albert Bryan of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and I think 
that will, as well, be informative along with my testimony.
    The impact of the COVID virus in the territories has been 
tremendous. In the Virgin Islands, like other territories, the 
impact of disaster economic recessions, always much more 
negative in the territories than it is on the mainland. The 
first COVID case in the Virgin Islands was confirmed on March 
13th. On that day, Governor Albert Bryan declared a local state 
of emergency. And on April 2nd, President Trump approved 
Governor Bryan's request for major disaster declaration. We are 
presently in the ``open door'' phase of the Virgin Islands and, 
as of Monday, June 29th, the Virgin Islands Department of 
Health has identified 84 positive cases with five remaining 
active cases, 73 recovered cases and 6 deaths. With the 
assistance of our federal partners, we're better supplied now 
than at the beginning; however, we remain concerned about the 
full and timely replacement of personal protective equipment, 
swabbing and testing. We received $3.5 million federal support 
from the Provider Relief Fund but as airlines and visitors 
return to the territory, we are concerned about that.
    As you know, the Virgin Islands is uniquely dependent on 
tourism. It generates 30 percent of the territory's gross 
domestic product and employs 25 percent of our civilian labor 
force. Because the COVID-19 impact reduced tourism revenues 
essentially to zero, the territory is suffering devastating 
economic losses. As I will discuss, the most support needed for 
the Virgin Islands' recovery from COVID is economic. The scale 
of the economic calamity is such that even sweeping relief 
provided by the CARES Act, while very much appreciated, is 
inadequate to prevent the territory from falling off our 
economic cliff. Economic models have projected a revenue 
shortfall of $250 million in 2020, that's 25 percent of our 
annual budget, and another $250 million in 2021, another 25 
percent of our annual budget.
    The sudden and dramatic drop in government revenues has 
reduced the territory's cash on hand to dangerously low levels, 
days of cash on hand, jeopardizing our ability to make payroll 
and perform basic public services. Unemployment claims jumped 
100 percent between March and April, from 4.2 percent 
unemployment to 8.4, while government revenue drops have been 
to unprecedented lows. Tourist expenditures average $1.2 
billion a year as the territory brings in hundreds of thousands 
of air arrival and cruise visitors. Typically there's an 
average of 178,644 cruise ship visitors in March, based on data 
from 2013 to 2019. However, in March 2020, there were only 
78,000, or 43 percent, of a typical monthly average due to the 
global suspension of cruise ship activities that started on 
March 14th. It is unclear when we will receive even close to 
that monthly average again.
    The CARES Act has ameliorated some of the harm and we 
appreciate that, but it will not prevent serious and lasting 
damages to the Virgin Islands' economy. Let's think about it. 
We received $75 million. While the Virgin Islands' population 
is approximately one-fifth the size of the smallest state, 
under the CARES Act we received one-seventeenth the minimum 
funding of a smallest state. This is inequitable. The pandemic 
doesn't distinguish between an individual or a virus in the 
territories or the United States and help available to American 
citizens threatened should not be either. As a result, the 
Virgin Islands will need a significant infusion of operating 
funding for Fiscal Years 2020 and 2021, covering both the 
outlays for Coronavirus expenses and the loss of revenues. 
Otherwise, it will fall far short of the revenue lost because 
of the pandemic.
    I have pages more to discuss, but I really just want to 
impress on you all the impact financially to the territories 
because of the pandemic. We have already faced significant 
losses and concern over the hurricanes, as you discussed, 
recovering from two Category 5 hurricanes, community disaster 
loan debt payments, FEMA local cost share for recovery funding. 
That has already crippled our economy. But now, to have to deal 
with this pandemic where 25 percent of our revenues of loss, 
inequitable treatment in how we are going to be receiving 
funds. Congress has got to do better. It is Congress' 
responsibility to take care of the territories. That, along 
with tax implications of the tax bill from this last tax bill 
and the 2004 one, which drove out economic diversification of 
our economy, we have got to make some changes that deal not 
just with the disaster right now but the underlying 
fundamental, economic disparities that are in the territories 
which keep us from being able to keep up.
    So I've gone over my time. I will submit and answer any 
questions that you all have. Thank you so much.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Plaskett follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    The Chairman. Thank you, Congresswoman.
    Let's next go to Congresswoman Gonzalez-Colon from Puerto 
Rico.

  STATEMENT OF HON. JENNIFFER GONZALEZ-COLON, CONGRESSWOMAN--
           PUERTO RICO, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

    Miss Gonzalez-Colon. Thank you, Chairman Murkowski and 
Ranking Member Manchin, as Puerto Rico's sole representative in 
Congress, for this invitation today in this hearing. I have 
submitted a more detailed version of my testimony to the 
Committee, so I will go over some immediate priorities during 
this time and knowing as well that the Governor of Puerto Rico 
submitted for the record her position.
    [Charts displayed during Oral Statement follow:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    Miss Gonzalez-Colon. On March 15th, Puerto Rico became the 
first U.S. jurisdiction to implement the strictest lockdown 
with a mandatory curfew and a shutdown of all non-essential 
businesses. COVID-19 coupled with the 2017 hurricanes and this 
year's earthquakes have created major unexpected challenges for 
a territory that, because of its colonial and political status 
and the inability to fully participate in our nation's 
democracy, has always considerably lagged the states 
economically. One way to facilitate our recovery will be to 
include in any future emergency relief package, language 
similar to the ones that I have looked up from the bicameral 
Congressional Task Force--H.R. 302, the Child Tax Credit; H.R. 
754, the Earned Income Tax Credit--that will provide equal 
treatment under both of these programs and an immediate impact 
on low income families in Puerto Rico which has a poverty level 
of 43.1, the highest in the nation.
    Congress should--Puerto Rico's NAP to SNAP. Under the 
Family First and the CARES Act, we received $297 million in 
supplemental funding for a capped blockgrant which is funded at 
$1.96 billion and serve over 1.3 million beneficiaries on the 
island with benefits close to 50 percent less than SNAP which 
is in the states and we don't have the disaster portion of the 
SNAP program. However, this will not be enough to cover the 
actual demand. Congress should increase our capped grant by 30 
percent to $2.5 billion and provide an additional $1.27 billion 
for NAP just to cover the current ongoing health emergency 
because we are going through the regular numbers in August. 
Also Puerto Rico was not included in the pandemic EBT program 
which provides nutritional benefit to students in light of 
school closures which started in mid-March and are still closed 
to this day. We have 218,000 students enrolled in child 
nutrition programs. Having access to the pandemic EBT will help 
counter food insecurity and hunger in those kids.
    The Family First allowed testing for the uninsured, FMAP 
with 100 percent FMAP, even though the ongoing medical--
Medicaid funding cap for the territories was raised for 3.5 
percent in this year and 3.0 percent for the next year, but 
expenses for the uninsured remain 100 percent FMAP. That means 
that together with the testing and the treatment for Medicaid 
beneficiaries that will result in additional spending costing 
Puerto Rico to use up its capped Medicaid funding more quickly. 
Congress should exempt the coverage of the uninsured for the 
Medicaid cap or, what I prefer, eliminate the cap which is not 
in place in the states.
    In Puerto Rico the best majority of Medicare beneficiaries 
receive their care through the local Medicare advantage 
organizations which accounted for nearly 50 percent of all 
healthcare expenses on the island. Congress should also provide 
emergency funding to providers of Medicare advantage so its 
funding can prevent hospitals from firing essential personnel 
during the emergency. Providers in Puerto Rico, so far, receive 
the lowest amount per capita of distribution of $23 compared to 
the national per capita of $174. Also, the providers in Puerto 
Rico are receiving $930 compared to the national medium of 
$9,700. That's a reason that won't be taken into account. This 
pandemic also demonstrated firsthand the risk posed by our 
country's heavy reliance on foreign manufacturing of medical 
supplies.
    We need to increase domestic production of medical goods. 
That's why we introduced H.R. 6443, which is a bipartisan bill 
that would establish federal tax incentives for current and 
repatriated manufacturing operations in distressed zones in 
areas of the whole nation that are extremely high poverty and 
prevalent unemployment across the nation. This bill will also 
incentivize research, development and manufacturing of 
population health works that because of their low cost and 
especially prone of offshoring. Puerto Rico can play a leading 
role in our efforts to bring back that manufacturing to the 
U.S. Twelve of the top 20 pharmaceutical and biotechnology 
companies in the world have manufacturing operations in Puerto 
Rico. We also manufacture half of the 2018 world's top ten most 
sold drugs. Puerto Rico is also home to medical devices 
manufacturing sites producing surgical and medical instruments 
like Medtronic and Abbott. Puerto Rico has a long history of 
pharmaceutical manufacturing and accounts with a highly skilled 
workforce. The island's university system has also invested in 
the highly skilled workforce by turning out a steady stream of 
new talent, highly sought by the likes of NASA. This bill will 
have a unique opportunity to bring jobs back to the United 
States and spur the economy of distressed zones, areas, like 
Puerto Rico.
    I look forward for answering any questions you may have and 
provide additional details and in the line of tourism, just 
with the COVID-19, we got 128 calls with Cruise Ship Council, 
53 of them were upwards, 75 of them were transit. That means 
that more than 350,000 passengers less through the last year. 
We, and again, the cruises industry, major cruise line has 
extended their sailing suspension to September so that means 
that it will be 183 cancels. So with that, my time is over. 
Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Miss Gonzalez-Colon follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    The Chairman. Thank you, Congresswoman. We appreciate that.
    And finally, we will hear from the Congressman from Guam, 
the Honorable Michael San Nicolas.

STATEMENT OF HON. MICHAEL F.Q. SAN NICOLAS, CONGRESSMAN--GUAM, 
                 U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

    Mr. San Nicolas. Good afternoon and Hafa Adai, Chairwoman 
Murkowski, Ranking Member Manchin and members of the Committee. 
I want to thank you for your leadership and advocacy in our 
combined efforts to provide equitable access of federal 
resources to the people of Guam and our U.S. territories in 
this global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
    In accessing our COVID-19 circumstances and evaluating what 
further action must be taken federally in order to fully meet 
the needs of our territories, we can find one very specific 
parallel to the pandemic itself, preexisting conditions 
exacerbate risk factors. For Guam, in particular, the 
preexisting conditions of unfunded earned income tax credit 
(EITC) mandates, the lack of supplemental security income 
applicability and the underfunded costs of the migratory 
impacts and the Compacts of Free Association left us vulnerable 
and stall our efforts to recover.
    From inception, the EITC costs for Guam have ballooned to 
roughly 30 percent of total income tax refund liabilities on 
Guam. The very nature of the EITC is that it is intended to pay 
a qualified recipient an amount in excess of their total banked 
income tax withholdings in order to incentivize work. While the 
EITC is a broad federal program is sustainable with the U.S. 
Treasury able to fund those costs using various deficit 
spending tools, applying them to Guam and leaving Guam to fund 
them is wholly unsustainable because a territory does not have 
similar access to such tools. As a result of this preexisting 
condition, Guam's capacity to meet COVID-19 threats was greatly 
diminished with less facility readiness and nurse recruitment 
and retention already inadequate to meet Guam's needs. The 
Congress must see to it that the Federal Government absorbs the 
cost of EITC by permanently funding it on a reimbursement basis 
in the territories. Additional thought should be put into a 
federal reserve facility to capitalize EITC costs to 
territories and direct payments from the Treasury to the Fed at 
the close of the Fiscal Year to reconcile it.
    When the pandemic struck and our tourism-based economy 
contracted, we have seen many families go from making ends meet 
to not being able to provide. We must recognize that 
preexisting challenges facing our at-risk community and how 
their situations went from bleak to destitute as a result of 
the pandemic. At its core, supplemental security income, SSI, 
is intended to serve as a lifeline for those who qualify, 
particularly the aged and the disabled, who otherwise would 
have little means to provide for their basic needs. The lack of 
SSI on Guam means that thousands of children and families go 
without what otherwise would be a staple of American decency 
throughout this country.
    Prior to the pandemic this at-risk group was cared for by 
aging parents and gracious family members, many of whom worked 
multiple jobs to supplement the cost of living and care for 
their loved ones. This preexisting condition already strained 
households and the economic savaging of the pandemic has caused 
people to not only lose their jobs but lose the ability to care 
for the disabled loved ones who would be supported by SSI had 
they not been statutorily excluded. The Congress must end the 
discriminatory exclusion of territories from SSI. Recent 
Federal Court rulings are already indicating that such an 
outcome is forthcoming. It would be both pragmatic and 
magnanimous for the Congress to fully extend SSI to the 
territories, particularly during these COVID-19 times, so the 
people most in need, even before the pandemic, are finally made 
whole during the pandemic.
    As the renegotiations for the Compacts of Free Association 
(COFA) Implementation Agreements begin in earnest, we must be 
mindful of how the preexisting condition of these agreements 
have created critical health, education and public safety 
vulnerabilities in the territory of Guam. To avail of the 
freedom to migrate, COFA citizens must either be doing so for 
education, health care or employment. The costs associated with 
hosting COFA migrants under either of these three prerequisites 
have vastly exceeded current funding levels. In 2019 the rate 
of federally-funded compact impact per COFA migrant was $892 
which is far short of the cost to educate at over $9,000, the 
cost for government health care at almost $3,000 and the cost 
of EITC should they be working and receiving that benefit at 
$2,800 on a per citizen basis on Guam. These shortfalls create 
real systemic imbalances and right preexisting conditions for 
COVID-19 to go untested, untreated or undiagnosed as COFA 
migrants aren't eligible for Medicaid coverage and the cash 
shortfall underfunded migratory costs overburden the systems of 
care.
    The Congress must strive to provide as much balance as 
possible to the costs associated of hosting COFA migrants, as 
failure to do so comes at a cost to health, education and 
public safety institutions provided by host communities. The 
Congress must also extend the applicability of Medicaid to COFA 
migrants as a commonsense component of the authorized migratory 
purpose of seeking healthcare and further consider extending 
Medicaid directly into COFA states as a means to ameliorate 
healthcare migration at the source. Addressing these 
preexisting conditions will certainly improve the outcome of 
all COVID-19 relief provided and permanently strengthen the 
Guam community to better withstand any future threats. While 
they represent longstanding issues within the territory of 
Guam, these pandemic circumstances have revealed the structural 
weaknesses caused by their systemic corrosion. To ensure our 
COVID-19 relief efforts are fully effective and to ensure that 
Guam and our territories are properly situated for any future 
risks, we must address the EITC, SSI and COFA inequities now, 
not later.
    Thank you, Chairwoman Murkowski and Ranking Member Manchin 
and members of the Committee, for the opportunity to testify 
before you today. I stand ready to answer any questions you may 
have.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. San Nicolas follows:]
    [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    The Chairman. Thank you so very much, and we appreciate the 
testimony of each of you here today.
    I am going to start off. There has been a great deal of 
focus, as there necessarily should be, on the economic impact 
due to COVID-19, but I am going to start my questions off with 
regard to healthcare capacity. As I look through the numbers 
out there, all of the island territories are very similar to 
Alaska in that you have either a mandatory 14-day quarantine or 
require some level of testing as we do in Alaska. The question 
to you is that I understood that in the early days of the COVID 
testing the results were either flown to Hawaii for testing or 
to Atlanta for results which, of course, just adds to the days 
and sometimes weeks to get a turnaround. Has that been 
resolved? Do you have the ability to get test results on island 
at this point in time in all five that are represented today?
    Puerto Rico says yes. Guam, yes. USVI?
    How about out in CNMI and American Samoa?
    Mr. Sablan. Yes.
    Mrs. Radewagen. Yes.
    The Chairman. Okay, okay.
    I think it was you, Congresswoman Plaskett, that mentioned 
that there was a worry or a concern about replacement PPE. Are 
there any other medical equipment shortages, PPE, that you all 
are currently worried about that FEMA is not being responsive, 
that HHS is not being responsive, that you have not addressed 
here today that any one of you would wish to share with us? I 
will start with our two individuals that are online, either 
Congresswoman Radewagen or Congressman Sablan?
    Mr. Sablan. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, in the beginning, 
when I wasn't, I'm not sure if it was at the direction of FEMA 
or if it was locally, but the Commonwealth government purchased 
testing agents, reagents, and test swabs from a company from 
South Korea and the swabs were not approved, CDC approved, FDA 
approved. Subsequent to that, I asked Dr. Fauci if he could 
help get FDA to approve it and eventually they're now approved 
but there was recently also a raid by the FBI on the company, 
both on Guam and on Saipan; it's the same company that sold us 
those unauthorized swabs and reagents.
    The Chairman. Okay.
    Mr. Sablan. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Anything else, Congresswoman or any of the 
panelists here?
    Ms. Plaskett. I just wanted to add that yes, we have the 
supplies that we need and FEMA is very responsive, because 
they're on the ground already in the Virgin Islands and Puerto 
Rico related to our other disaster. We also have capacity 
issues just based on our hospitals not having the facilities in 
the manner that they're supposed to be. On the island of St. 
Croix, we are just this past couple of weeks, put up the 
temporary facility before the rebuild of our hospital from the 
2017. So having the beds necessary if there's a surge has been 
a problem that we are dealing with and because the territories, 
the smaller territories, also are still being reimbursed based 
on TEFRA rather than on another reimbursable. There's a 
question of whether or not we're going to be able to get the 
add-on payments that are needed if those patients are Medicaid 
or Medicare.
    The Chairman. So, it is, and I was out there on St. Croix 
and saw the devastation to that hospital, incredible to see 
what you had experienced and then to recognize just how long it 
was going to be until you actually had another facility.
    Ms. Plaskett. Right.
    The Chairman. I know that Congresswoman Radewagen, you also 
mentioned American Samoa's LBJ Hospital. I have not seen that 
one myself, but it kind of speaks to the capacity issues that 
you face when, you know, fortunately for American Samoa, you do 
not have any cases. You want to keep it that way, but your 
capacity is limited, at least in a couple of these areas 
because you have had a disaster visit you before and we have 
not been able to get on top of that to this point in time.
    Ms. Plaskett. And while FEMA and the Army Corps are very 
good about identifying other locations and putting up the beds 
and the capacity that's needed, the cost of that, the share 
that we have to pay for each one of those beds is really 
exorbitant.
    The Chairman. Congresswoman.
    Miss Gonzalez-Colon. One of the issues that is related to 
that hospital capacity is actually that hospitals in Puerto 
Rico use 50 percent for Medicaid Advantage. So although Family 
First and CARES had included money for Medicaid, many of those 
hospitals are firing personnel, essential personnel, because 
they are not having any activity or payments or advancement by 
the Medicare Advantage Program and that's not only in Puerto 
Rico, that's happening in Florida, Oregon and many other 
states. But in our case, that represent more than 50 percent.
    So even when we do have 3,800 beds in use, of them just 102 
from COVID and more than 2,400 available, that doesn't mean 
that the hospitals are going to continue to maintain their 
operations because they are not receiving the Medicaid 
Advantage funds. So that is a critical issue and we saw a lot 
of layoff from hospitals and nurses during this emergency time, 
at least on the island.
    The Chairman. I appreciate that.
    Mrs. Radewagen. Chairman Murkowski?
    The Chairman. Go ahead, you can finish up.
    Mrs. Radewagen. The funds from the CARES Act are being used 
at LBJ for the virus-related expenditures which total more than 
$3.6 million and includes over $1.3 million in medical 
equipment, nearly $2 million in medical supplies and $320,000 
in infrastructure costs. According to LBJ, the hospital 
anticipates more expenditures for more COVID-19 project 
supplies and equipment. And just to make a long story short, as 
of June 14th, total test kits on hand is 3,300 with 1,800 test 
kits for the GeneXpert testing machines which serve to test 
symptomatic patients and 1,500 test kits for the Abbott ID NOW 
being used. So we're okay so far.
    The Chairman. Good, good.
    Senator Manchin.
    Senator Manchin. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
    First I would like to start with Congresswoman Radewagen 
since you have no reported cases in American Samoa. Can you 
tell us about what time period you all took action when you had 
heard of COVID-19? This will go down the line to all of you, 
but your timetable and what you did immediately that you think 
was able to have the outcome you have had so far?
    Mrs. Radewagen. Yes, Ranking Member Manchin. The borders 
were closed right away in March----
    Senator Manchin. Was that early March, about March 19th or 
earlier than that?
    Mrs. Radewagen. About the third week in March, I believe it 
was.
    Senator Manchin. Okay.
    Mrs. Radewagen. And commercial flights were suspended and 
they still are suspended as of now and it's been a big help but 
we have a lot of angry constituents who are stuck up in the 
states wanting to come home and ones who want to go up to the 
states, but that has been very effective for us. And as you 
mentioned, the Spanish Flu in 1918, it's exactly what they did. 
They closed the borders.
    Senator Manchin. We will just go right down the line, if we 
can.
    Congressman Sablan.
    Mr. Sablan. Yeah, thank you, Senator Manchin.
    We did as well. We closed just around the same time. Our 
tourists come from South Korea, China and Japan, primarily. And 
we were able to, we closed just as early as we could, although, 
we were, I think, a week or two behind but still we were 
blessed. We were very fortunate that we had no tourists coming 
into the Marianas. There were two missionaries from the 
Philippines, they all came to Saipan, just to Saipan and they 
both, they were already infected and they both, they're the 
only two infected individuals that actually passed away. But we 
have been just very lucky. Thank God.
    Senator Manchin. Congressman Plaskett.
    Ms. Plaskett. I would say that we closed early and our 
numbers remained very low until just recently. Most of our 
infections have been travel-related, that is the----
    Senator Manchin. Is that when you opened back up?
    Ms. Plaskett. Right. Yes, sir.
    Our Governor closed our hotels. While he was unable to 
close the airlines, the fact that there were not hotel rooms 
meant that people were not able to come. And Virgin Islanders, 
like the other territories, are used to disaster, so when the 
Governor says everything is shutdown, people usually comply. We 
understand that.
    We just, in this week, started to have some community 
transmissions. That's a concern and so, thankfully, we will 
begin the tracing. We have been doing a good job of the tracing 
as well. But I think shutting down early and people following 
has been what has helped us. Wouldn't you say, Jenniffer?
    Miss Gonzalez-Colon. Thank you.
    In our case, in Puerto Rico, of 3.3 million, we got 1,600 
cases confirmed molecular test and 5,700 serological tests, 
probable cases for a total of 7,400, but again, Puerto Rico 
closed. It was in a strict curfew and shutdown on March 15. So 
we were the first jurisdiction in the nation to do that. And 
right now, the Governor just yesterday announced that there's 
going to be a new requirement for all passengers arriving to 
Puerto Rico to provide test results, molecular test or 
serological test, before arriving to the island. We are doing 
those tests onsite. They're voluntarily right now, but there's 
going to be a requirement of providing at least 72 hours before 
arriving. And if you are noncompliant with that, you're going 
to have a 14-day quarantine on the island.
    Mr. San Nicolas. We closed early as well, Senator, similar 
to our colleagues in the CNMI, around the same time.
    What the reality is on the ground now, however, is because 
of these social programs that I mentioned earlier, not applying 
to Guam and the various impact that it's having on our local 
revenue streams, we're really running into that very real 
sticky place where, you know, people want to stay safe and 
secure and not bring the virus in but we're such a tourism 
dependent economy, that if we don't open up and if we don't 
begin having flights coming in, the financial circumstances are 
going to result in, perhaps, equally damaging healthcare 
realities for many of our people.
    And so, in the earlier question, Senator Murkowski, about 
the PPE needs. While FEMA has been wonderful and HHS has been 
wonderful in meeting our status quo needs, the reality is when 
we bring these tourists in, we're going to have an exponential 
need. We have 160,000 people living on Guam, but we bring in 
1.6 million tourists a year, the most per capita of anywhere 
else in the country. If we don't have PPE for those visitors, 
we're just going to be inviting catastrophe and once that 
spirals out of control, the tourism will shutdown all over 
again.
    And so, we have a very unique set of circumstances where we 
need to understand that opening up eventually is going to have 
to happen, but we're also going to need the resources and the 
plans in place in order to do so responsibly so that it's 
sustainable.
    Senator Manchin. Let me just say, if I can take one more 
liberty here. We know the economies are all struggling in all 
states and all territories. We know that the economy is not 
going to come back until we have a vaccine where people feel 
safe, so they can really go out and operate like we have done 
before.
    So without the economy coming back the way you would like 
for it to, can you, real quickly, just all of you, say what is 
your greatest need you have? Do you think it is food that is 
going to be the greatest concern you have sustaining your 
citizens? Is it going to be your healthcare services, being 
able to sustain your healthcare services that they might be 
needing? What would you term or define as your greatest need? I 
would assume you all are looking forward to another round of 
COVID assistance in the CARES Act?
    Mr. San Nicolas. Well, Senator, from our perspective we're 
able to provide some unique set of eyes on that. Our 
unemployment program is only now getting stood up. And so, we 
can, kinda, give you an example of what happens when 
unemployment isn't around anymore. On top of that, the eviction 
moratoriums are expiring on the 25th of July. The Federal 
Pandemic Unemployment Compensation is expiring at the end of 
July.
    And so, we're going to be facing multiple threats. Right 
now, because unemployment has taken so long to roll out, we 
have people literally lining up at two in the morning in their 
cars waiting for food assistance to get handed out. And they'll 
wait for four hours and then when they show up, when they 
finally make it up to the front of the line, food's out. And 
so, you know, food can be looked at as one definite need, but 
definitely health care and it's all multifaceted. The reality 
is until our economies are working again, those are all going 
to be needs to include rental assistance, housing assistance.
    And so, as my colleague from the CNMI mentioned earlier, 
the HEROES Act does provide a significant amount of support 
that we think would help carry us into where a vaccine would 
probably be available. But absent any additional COVID relief, 
similar to the CARES Act and on a continuous and ongoing basis, 
particularly for our tourism-oriented economies, we're going to 
be in a very, a very bad place.
    Miss Gonzalez-Colon. In the case of Puerto Rico I think the 
PPP is a very important program and everything is going to be 
in during this summer, equal to unemployment. I will say health 
care is one of the most important, in terms of Medicare and, of 
course, the food assistance through NAP and I will say EBT.
    In the agricultural program, I don't know what they said 
happened with the territories, although we all qualify. In the 
case of Puerto Rico, all specialty crops, like coffee, bananas, 
plantains, many other of our produce are not listed as 
qualifying. So our farmers are not eligible to receive all that 
was approved just because our crops in the Caribbean or in the 
islands are not listed as the main ones. We sent letters to 
address that issue so we are waiting for USDA just to clarify. 
But at least in our case, we're talking about mangos, 
pineapple, all lettuce, peppers, jams, cilantro, passionfruit, 
many others, all that the island produces is not included as a 
regular crop.
    Senator Manchin. I am sorry----
    Mr. Sablan. If I may also, Senator.
    In the Northern Marianas, you know, we have a cap on 
Medicaid just like the rest of the territories and just as of 
April, just after the COVID, of course, people lost their jobs 
and additional 2,606 individuals are signed up for Medicaid, 
qualified for Medicaid. And right now, Medicaid covers over 50 
percent of the total U.S. citizens in the Marianas as of the 
swabs, for example, and reagents, as of yesterday, testing 
supplies available are the SolGent, of Korean products, 1,502 
of test kits. The Abbott ID is 3,474 and the GeneXpert is 
2,749. So yeah, we could expect to see these things run out in 
a very short time.
    Thank you.
    Ms. Plaskett. Senator, I believe it's economic. The support 
for unemployment and the equitable treatment, if there are 
funding to states to have that funding to go to the territories 
which are going to take a long time in coming back up, I think, 
are the most important.
    Mrs. Radewagen. The short answer for American Samoa is all 
of the above. We need everything. As a matter of fact, I would 
say almost 90 percent of the goods and supplies are imported 
and many of the things that are taken for granted in the United 
States are things that we still have a tremendous need for.
    Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Manchin.
    Let's go to Senator Hirono, who is online.
    Senator Hirono. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    It is good to see all of you. Thank you so much for coming 
to tell us what is happening in your countries.
    So I have a question for Representative San Nicolas. Hawaii 
and Guam are home to sizable populations of COFA citizens who 
are not covered under Medicaid and this happened in my view, 
inadvertently when the 1996 welfare, we will call it the 
Welfare Reform Act, was enacted, and so the pandemic has 
underscored the need for everyone to be covered by health 
insurance and access to health care is really important.
    Last July, I introduced the Covering our FAS Allies Act in 
the Senate, and I am thankful to you, Representatives Sablan 
and Radewagen, for cosponsoring the House companion bill. How 
would restoring Medicaid benefits to COFA citizens by passing 
the Covering our FAS Allies Act improve Guam's ability to 
respond to the COVID-19 pandemic?
    Mr. San Nicolas. Thank you very much, Senator, for the 
question.
    Because COFA migrants are not covered under Medicaid, they 
fall under what Guam refers to as the medically indigent 
program which is basically 100 percent local funded----
    Senator Hirono. Yes.
    Mr. San Nicolas. ----care to be provided for the COFA 
migrant. Because we're not able to use those funds to get the 
matching that we're able to get under Medicaid, we basically 
are suffering from a loss of buying power, significant loss of 
buying power because right now, I think, if recent legislation 
passed, I believe that we're able to get over 80 percent 
Medicaid matching now for every Medicaid dollar that Guam 
spends. But we're not able to do that for the COFA migrants. So 
basically, we're suffering from not being able to service three 
times as many migrants who might need COVID treatments because 
we're not able to leverage our dollar using Medicaid matching 
resources.
    Senator Hirono. So it would make a huge difference to Guam 
as well as to Hawaii and there are other places now, Arkansas, 
there are other places where COFA citizens live and they are 
not covered under Medicaid. And so, it would make a huge 
difference. For Hawaii, it would be a difference of millions 
and millions of dollars.
    I want to thank the members of the House, all of you, for 
putting this item into, I believe it is in your CARES Act. 
Thank you very much.
    A question for Congresswoman Radewagen. Both of us are--
both for where you are, American Samoa, Hawaii--we are very 
dependent on air travel for our tourists, of course, and right 
now we do not have national standards for how to reopen air 
travel faithfully. I have written a letter to the Department of 
Transportation, Homeland Security, Secretary of State and 
others for them to work together to come up with common 
standards that airlines can follow rather than all the airlines 
doing their own thing, the states, the airports, everybody 
doing their own thing. Knowing how important travel is to both 
American Samoa and, in fact, all of our territories, do you 
agree that we should have national standards to enable air 
travel to open safely?
    Mrs. Radewagen. Well, right offhand it makes a lot of 
sense.
    Senator Hirono. What about the rest of you? Do you agree? 
The rest of the panel?
    Ms. Plaskett. I'm reluctant to impose national standards on 
airlines throughout the country and I think, however, that it's 
Congress' responsibility to continually question and have some 
oversight over the airlines as they engage in what their 
practices are going to be. You know, there are constitutional 
issues that, kind of, make me cringe when I think about what 
may need to be done for our airlines and airports, restrictions 
that can and cannot work. And you know, I'm looking to see what 
your bill looks like, Senator, that would be very interesting 
to review to see how that can be done in a manner that is safe 
for all Americans but still keeps businesses competitive and 
independent.
    Mr. Sablan. Senator, if I may?
    Senator Hirono. Actually, Representative Plaskett, it is 
not a bill. It is a request to the federal agencies that have 
oversight over various aspects of air travel to come together 
with some common kinds of standards. For example, the FAA 
imposes all kinds of standards on our airlines and our airports 
all the time. So this is really a request that we have some 
common standards because what you are now going to face are 
different airports having different requirements, different 
airlines having different requirements.
    Ms. Plaskett. Right.
    Senator Hirono. And it makes air travel pretty tough, I 
would say.
    Ms. Plaskett. Yes, it does.
    Senator Hirono. And since we are so dependent, it is not a 
bill. I hope that you all can agree with me that that would 
probably be a good thing.
    Ms. Plaskett. Thank you.
    Senator Hirono. Congressman Sablan, would you like to add 
anything to that? If not, I will go on to the next question.
    Mr. Sablan. Yes, I'm willing to look at what you're 
offering, Senator Hirono.
    You know, I just flew in. I have to fly to Guam.
    Senator Hirono. Yes.
    Mr. Sablan. A whole day in Guam, fly to Hawaii, Senator.
    Senator Hirono. Yes.
    Mr. Sablan. To Houston, then DC. It is difficult and it's 
scary to ride in an airplane.
    Senator Hirono. Not to mention, by the way, that the CARES 
Act and the COVID bills provided billions for the airlines.
    Mr. Sablan. Yes.
    Senator Hirono. And now they are getting back to, pretty 
much, packing their airplanes and I do not think that is what 
the CDC is recommending in terms of spacing and social 
distancing. So I think we need to remain very concerned about 
what is going on with air travel.
    Mr. Sablan. Right. Between San Francisco and Honolulu there 
are actually full flights often----
    Senator Hirono. Yes, and I think that is not particularly 
safe.
    Am I, Madam Chair, am I over my time? I can't tell.
    The Chairman. Yes, Senator Hirono, you are.
    Senator Hirono. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    Senator Hirono. I will submit my other questions, but I 
thank the panelists.
    The Chairman. Senator Hirono, thank you. I think you offer 
a very important perspective coming from our islanded state.
    Several of you, well, just about everybody does have to 
some extent a reliance on the cruise industry to bring your 
tourists and for many of you it is a significant part of your 
tourist base. We have been talking about the restrictions and 
limitations on air travel and, believe me, in Alaska we know 
what it means to have your summer visitors decide that they are 
going to go somewhere else when they look and see that well, 
there is a 14-day quarantine if I come to your state and I 
don't want to spend my whole vacation in a hotel somewhere. So 
that is not a good option for us.
    For us, we were expecting 1.4 million tourists to come to 
Alaska this summer on cruise ships. As you all have indicated, 
we are, as they say, dead in the water. There are no cruise 
ships that are coming, possibly in September, but it does not 
make for a season. And for us, that season is over in 
September. As much as everybody wants to come to Alaska, they 
do not view it as their winter vacation and that is why they 
don't sell those cruises then.
    But for you all that is an opportunity when the industry, 
kind of, gets back to work here. But I recognize that right now 
we have an industry that is not ready to receive the passengers 
and in many of the communities, the communities do not want to 
receive people that are coming off a cruise ship. So the 
question that I would have to you and all of you who welcome 
the cruise industry to your regions is what movement you have 
seen from the CDC to work to develop these health and safety 
protocols so that not only do the passengers feel that it is 
safe to get on these ships but the communities feel safe in 
receiving them--because I know in Alaska's experience, we have 
several of our communities that have said as much as we want 
the revenues that are going to come in when you stop, we are 
not sure that we want to run that risk if this is still high 
risk for COVID.
    So if you can speak to that, Miss Gonzalez?
    Miss Gonzalez-Colon. Madam Chair.
    The Chairman. Congresswoman.
    Miss Gonzalez-Colon. We agree on what you are experiencing 
in Alaska. We're having the same thing in San Juan which is our 
major port for cruise ships. And having said that, they're 
going to be suspended, all cruise ships, to December. Right 
now, the impact between March 14 and now is pretty much $66 
million, at least in Puerto Rico.
    So we're talking about a direct impact in tourism, even 
though tourism is seven percent of the GDP of the island, many 
people think that number is higher. It's just seven percent. 
We're talking about the airlines coming to the island as well, 
passengers. We've got several airports and now we're just 
serving San Juan as a way to try to receive all of them and do 
the voluntary test. The National Guard in Puerto Rico are doing 
voluntary testing of all passengers that are arriving. But 
again, if you are not complying with that, that's the reason 
the new Executive Order from the Governor requesting 72-hours 
before a test be made by the passenger.
    And I know the Senator was explaining before, and I agree 
with Congresswoman Plaskett, is the issue that we can do that, 
Hawaii can do that or any different jurisdiction but we need to 
have a uniform way to address this issue, not just where the 
passenger is coming from, but how are we going to comply with 
legal issues and at the same time how you balance health and 
economy because we need to learn how to live with this because 
today is COVID-19 but maybe in several months it's going to be 
another virus.
    So we need, in terms of the CDC or what are going to be the 
guidelines? We did a hearing in the House, not just in T&I 
Committee, Transportation and Infrastructure, but several 
others just for the tourism industry about cruises and planes 
because we don't want to lose a lot of the airplane's routes 
that are serving smaller airports across our island. And I 
assume that's the same thing happening in Alaska because one 
thing is the international airport but the local ones are, 
right now, directly impacted because all those flights are 
cancelled.
    The Chairman. And some of those companies are now going 
bankrupt.
    Congresswoman Plaskett.
    Ms. Plaskett. Senator, may I point something out that I 
find really interesting about how we attempted to deal with 
CARES Act and the economic impact? We have, the CARES Act put 
money in airports. We gave money to airlines. We also gave to 
local economies based on the number of individuals infected. 
But there has not been money given to marine ports, you know, 
for us, like Puerto Rico and these other islands, our ports are 
our lifeline for supplies, Senator Manchin, like you were 
talking about food and others. There's not been funding given 
to that.
    And there have not been given funding to places like Alaska 
and others that have, were reliant on cruise ship passengers 
and what that means to their economies. We spent a lot of time 
focused on airlines throughout this, whether it's CDC 
guidelines for how airlines were going to open, but not much in 
effort has been put on shipping, ports and these cruise lines. 
And I think that's something that you're, we're recognizing and 
I'm glad you raised that question because I don't think there's 
been a lot of, a lot of effort put in there.
    The Chairman. I think it is something that we need to be 
engaged with the CDC on this to make sure that, again, but that 
there is this back and forth, if you will, in terms of 
understanding what these protocols are and a recognition that 
we are dealing with health safety issues, but we are also 
dealing with significant economic repercussions as well.
    Let me turn to Senator Manchin.
    Senator Manchin. My heart goes out to all of you. It really 
does. I have been able to visit some, and I have enjoyed every 
time I have been there, but I know on top of the disasters, the 
natural disasters, the hurricanes coming through, folks are 
still trying to recover from that and hitting on top of this 
and economies flattening out completely.
    I don't know what the next round is going to be. I really 
can't tell you that. It is not going to be as robust as you all 
have done over in the House, but what we are going to do is, we 
are going to pinpoint. We want to find out really and I think 
you all can help us, all of you. Tell us what has not worked, 
because we are all different. West Virginia is different than 
Texas and California. Puerto Rico is going to be a little bit 
different than American Samoa and the Virgin Islands, and we 
all have different needs. We have got to be able now to do a 
surgical attack. This has to be a surgical attack the next 
time, how we are able to help and assist and where it may be, 
unemployment?
    Okay, I am having a problem with unemployment compensation 
right now because the $600 on top of the unemployment, people 
won't go back to work. They are just not going back. They won't 
go back until it runs out on July 31st. Now with that being 
said, you can't take a sinister approach and say, okay, no 
more. What I thought from day one, it should be, ``keep them 
whole.'' Whatever their paycheck was, we will keep that 
paycheck whole until we get this economy moving again. We have 
bumped up an incentive and it really just incentivized people 
to want to get back into action. It is going to be a rude 
awakening on July 31st to a lot of people. It is going to stop.
    Yes, Stacey?
    Ms. Plaskett. May I say something, Senator?
    Senator Manchin. Sure.
    Ms. Plaskett. One area that I think we need to be careful 
of because the territories usually receive reimbursement in 
terms of stipends, I know for us, our seniors are still waiting 
for funding for social security.
    Senator Manchin. Yes.
    Ms. Plaskett. We're still waiting for the IRS and Treasury 
to send the list to the Governors so that they can get that 
money out to individuals. But one of the good things I want to 
tell a story about is for us the PPP program for small 
businesses has worked tremendously well, particularly in the 
second round of funding when it was targeted toward smaller 
banks because we're in a small community and the banks know the 
businesses.
    Senator Manchin. Oh, yes.
    Ms. Plaskett. We were able to get large amounts to our 
small businesses----
    Senator Manchin. That was the second round you are talking 
about?
    Ms. Plaskett. Yes.
    Senator Manchin. Yes, we all got hit, every rural area in 
America got hit the same as the islands got hit, money was not 
going out to them.
    Ms. Plaskett. And then how did the second round do for 
your----
    Senator Manchin. Much better. Oh, yes, much better on that 
and we have looked at that and, you know, there is a lot of 
money left. There is over $400 billion left in the large loan 
programs which the corporations would not take----
    Ms. Plaskett. Right.
    Senator Manchin. ----because they did not want to be held 
to the strict guidelines that you could not give bonuses and 
you could not have stock buybacks. So there is a lot of money 
in play right now that we can retransfer, if you will, and 
surgically put it in areas it is really needed. That is what we 
are looking at and we just have not done enough in evaluating 
it. We are going to wait until everything runs out and someone 
says, let's throw a chunk of more money to it. I don't think 
that is going to happen. So the more we can do right now to 
surgically help each one of you all, the same as all of our 
states need help, too, is what we really should be doing.
    Ms. Plaskett. Mr. San Nicolas, my junior colleague there, I 
like reminding him that he is a freshman, has been doing some 
tremendous work on financial services, and one of the letters 
that he wrote was about municipal credit facilities which the 
territories were not eligible for. The Treasury decided that 
they were not going to include us. They interpreted on their 
own that we weren't eligible to receive that funding.
    Senator Manchin. You all did receive--the same as the 
states, every state got a minimum. The smallest states in 
America got $1.25 billion that went to their states to assist 
them in trying to help to the expense of Coronavirus. Did all 
of the territories, didn't you all receive----
    Ms. Plaskett. We did not receive----
    Mr. Sablan. No.
    Ms. Plaskett. No.
    Senator Manchin. You received some but not $1.25, I know 
that.
    Mr. San Nicolas. Specifically, to the municipal liquidity 
facility that's administered by the Fed, territories are not 
able to access that at all and that's an issue because our 
liquidity is incredibly strained. And I've raised this issue 
with Chairman Powell, my Chairwoman in the FSC Committee--
Chairman Waters raised it today again. They're saying that 
they're looking at it, but if we can get help to have the Fed 
really understand that, you know, getting territories access to 
that liquidity facility is critical at this time.
    Ms. Plaskett. We did receive the federal funding that each 
one of the states got. It's just that our percentage was very 
different than the rest of the states were.
    Senator Manchin. Was it because of the infection rate or--
--
    Ms. Plaskett. No, because they decided that they were going 
to create a separate amount of funding for the territories and 
then allow us to split that up in the same way that they do 
Medicaid. They came up with a number that they----
    Senator Manchin. Are any of you hurting right now, 
basically not being able to meet your Coronavirus expenses, the 
expenses directly to the virus?
    Mr. Sablan. Yes. Yes.
    Senator Manchin. You are?
    Mr. Sablan. Yes. And Senator Manchin, may I?
    Senator Manchin. Sure.
    Mr. Sablan. Just as a matter of, you know, a matter of law, 
the PUA and FPUA, the unemployment compensation, for example, 
the Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Labor has 
interpreted that and for purposes of the COFA nation citizens 
who reside in the United States, has interpreted, they have 
gone instead, instead of interpreting it based on the law, they 
have gone actually to FEMA and asked FEMA to give them an 
interpretation on how it's interpreted based on the Stafford 
Act.
    Now, the Stafford Act is different. I mean, this 
unemployment compensation has eligibility requirements for 
unemployment, especially in the Pacific Island nations, but 
citizens of COFA are not eligible because the U.S. Department 
of Labor went to FEMA and got their interpretation in terms of 
the Stafford Act which first, they're not eligible, but they 
meet the eligibility under the CARES Act, unfortunately. And 
so, I'm sure there's a whole lot more in Guam, Hawaii. You 
know, just as of last night when I found out that 1,100 
citizens of COFA who work for Tysons are infected, 1,100. 
That's a large number and I don't know who is going to pay for 
their hospital bills.
    Mrs. Radewagen. Senator Manchin, getting back to your 
question on what hasn't worked. I would say that for American 
Samoa, getting funding to the people--the SBA waiting period 
and the deadlines, and the unemployment funds are just 
beginning to come in.
    Senator Manchin. Yes.
    Mrs. Radewagen. Those are some of the key things that 
haven't worked for American Samoa.
    Senator Manchin. Thank you.
    Yes?
    Miss Gonzalez-Colon. Mr. Senator, I think one of the issues 
that we've got back home, even when we receive the full amount 
for the state the municipalities were not allowed to receive 
because all of them do not meet the 500,000 people threshold. 
So that's an issue when you've got municipalities suffering 
from the earthquakes, same thing to still recovering from the 
hurricanes and then now we've got the COVID-19 and us, in the 
Caribbean, now facing the Sahara dust that is, you know, 
another issue.
    So housing is an issue for Puerto Rico and even though we 
receive $20 billion from CDBG funds, not all of them are 
already on the islands. So one of the asks that we're trying to 
have is if we can, schools and houses that were impacted by the 
hurricanes were impacted as well with the earthquakes, so if we 
can use those funds to repair, no matter if it was the 
hurricane or the earthquake, those facilities, because right 
now, it's just labeled that money and you can't use it to 
repair in that sense. So it's commonsense. You cannot touch the 
money from the earthquakes to the money from the hurricanes.
    Senator Manchin. Let's see if we can help you on that.
    Miss Gonzalez-Colon. Thank you.
    Senator Manchin. It is crazy.
    Thank you, all.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Manchin.
    That was a great question, what has not worked, and I think 
it is important that we understand from lessons learned. Again, 
I think we recognize that when we put in place the CARES Act, 
we were moving a lot of money out real quick and we were going 
to either undershoot or overshoot or miss the mark altogether. 
And we have learned, we have made some adjustments on that. 
Some of them have not come in a very timely manner, but they 
have come. But if we are going to be moving forward in yet 
another round, it does not make sense to just add money to a 
program that has clearly demonstrated that it fails certain 
constituencies. And if we need to make those adjustments, we 
need to do just that.
    As I think about how this country, our territories, move 
forward, and thinking about economic recovery, so much of it is 
in what you all have outlined with regards to things that are 
just, really, critically important when it comes to health care 
and Medicaid and just all of the reimbursement issues. But I 
want to talk hard infrastructure just for a moment because 
there is a lot of discussion around here, oh, yes, we are going 
to do an infrastructure bill. Well we have been talking about 
that for a long while, and we are running out of daylight here.
    But, one of the things that we have really come to 
appreciate, I think, during this time of COVID is that our 
healthcare, our education system is made stronger if you have 
good broadband, you have the ability to do telehealth or 
distance learning. So I am curious to know from those of you if 
internet broadband is a consideration, an issue for you. In 
other hard infrastructure I know that we passed legislation 
here five years ago directing DOI to develop energy action 
plans for the territories. And so, you know, that often is 
viewed, energy infrastructure to deliver clean energy solutions 
where you are not relying on diesel that is shipped in, is 
something that, I think, we all look to as a future.
    Congresswoman Gonzalez, you mentioned the Puerto Rico 
Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, the WaterSMART grants, 
recognizing that, again, when you are talking about a pandemic 
it is really important that you have clean water for your 
citizens.
    As we think about infrastructure, I would be curious to 
hear from the five of you what could be beneficial from an 
economic recovery perspective that you would classify in this 
particular bucket. We will go down this direction, so we will 
start with you, Congressman San Nicolas.
    Mr. San Nicolas. Thank you. Thank you, Senator.
    I'd first like to recognize my colleague, Congresswoman 
Plaskett, because she's done tremendous work to increase the 
allotment for our roadways in the territories and that's being 
included in our infrastructure bill in the House that we're 
currently working on. I know that my colleague also, 
Congresswoman Gonzalez-Colon, actually wanted to increase that 
amount further. Roadway infrastructure is a serious issue, 
especially on Guam. Our weather conditions make for a very 
short lifespan for even a well-built road. On top of that, 
because we don't have the same kind of investment in public 
transportation that a lot of the states have, we have a lot of 
drivers on these roads. And so, road wear and tear from use, 
road wear and tear from environmental conditions result in a 
lot of roadwork that needs to be taken care of.
    And so, these additional road resources are very welcomed, 
but I would like to ask if there is a way for us to consider, 
at least for our territories, those road resources are 
specifically for routed roads, but we have a lot of secondary 
roads on our island that do not have any kind of funding 
resources. They are, perhaps, not perhaps, they absolutely are 
in worse shape than our federally-routed roads that do have the 
federal resources. And with the COVID-19 circumstances and our 
tax revenue base dropping out of the bottom, I don't see any 
local resources being available to maintain secondary roads 
anytime soon. And so, I mean, road infrastructure, all the way 
back to Roman times, has been critical for economic 
sustainability. That's something that I would very much like to 
ask to be a priority for the infrastructure bill.
    The Chairman. Very good.
    Congresswoman.
    Miss Gonzalez-Colon. In the case of Puerto Rico, I need to 
say that we are right now having a drought. So beside all the 
situation, our condition is living in the Caribbean add more 
pressure to the resources. So we are the only territory, the 
only state in the whole nation that is excluded from the 
WaterSMART Grants Eligibility Act that actually works with 
drought resiliency and fresh water. So that's an easy one, 
right? Just including us as the rest of the states.
    The second, I will say, is the rural areas for broadband. 
There's a reality that right now you need to move forward a lot 
of schools to go to remote work with kids. We've still got a 
problem with schools in the south part of the island because 
those municipalities were impacted by the earthquakes. So you 
get one town like, Guanica, all six schools are closed. So 
you've really got a situation back home in terms of access to 
broadband in the rural areas on the island.
    In terms of the infrastructure for, I'll say, ports, being 
an island, ports should be in the best condition ever and not 
just the San Juan area, but the rest of the ports on the 
island. In terms of the, we receive a block grant as a 
territory for roads and highways. Our problem is that having 
the same metrics that you use for lines in the rest of the 
states who are receiving that allocation, Puerto Rico is just 
receiving $200 million when the states that make, compared to 
us, will be receiving $418. So we are asking to remove the cap 
or, at least, increase the amount of funds going to highways 
and local roads because we are, I mean, we are not receiving, 
using the same metrics, the money that should be used for 
infrastructure. And Puerto Rico's infrastructure serves a lot 
of the pharmaceutical that supplies the national supply chains 
and many others.
    So, and social security incomes, supplemental, SSI, I mean, 
a lot of our elderly people are not receiving those resources 
and you see the poverty level line of 43 percent is because all 
this program, instead of having SNAP, which is the program all 
states got for food assistance, in the territories we receive 
NAP, at least in Puerto Rico. That means it's the less of the 
funds and resources as well.
    So I say, infrastructure for taking the cap for the 
blockgrant, moving us from the rural areas for broadband in 
rural areas and, of course, the WaterSMART. And I'm not talking 
here about energy that you may know, you were on the island 
that we are having a lot of, 40 percent of petroleum, 39 
percent of gas and 18 percent of coal, just two percent of 
renewables and all the infrastructure suffer by the hurricanes 
and the earthquakes and we don't have access yet to the $1.9 
billion allocated by Congress to manage the energy area.
    The Chairman. Here we go, we have three more to finish this 
up and then we will turn to Senator Cantwell.
    Congresswoman Plaskett.
    Ms. Plaskett. I'll be very quick.
    In terms of infrastructure I think one of the major ones is 
trans-shipment which would include ports, but I think we have 
the potential and there had been discussion previously about 
utilizing either Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands for LNG trans-
shipment to the rest of the Caribbean. And I think that's 
something that needs to be put back on the plate.
    I'm working with a colleague, the Dean of the House from 
Alaska, Don Young, about support for ferry systems in our areas 
which are remote needed, but I think also your discussion about 
broadband. In my estimation, broadband is for transportation 
the same way that the railroads were in the 1800s. It is the 
way that goods and services, information is going to be 
transported in this country and we need to make the investment 
in it. The Virgin Islands has some of the--has the largest 
broadband capacity in the United States, outside of New York 
City, more than Silicon Valley, elsewhere because Global 
Crossing put their North American hub on the island of St. 
Croix. But our children have the lowest bandwidth capacity. 
They have the lowest speed because they do not have that access 
in that last mile coming to their homes. That's inexcusable, 
and so the investment in that is really, I think, key to us 
being also able to grow our economy.
    So thanks.
    The Chairman. That is very interesting information.
    Let's go to Congressman Sablan.
    Mr. Sablan. Yeah, thank you.
    I'd also echo broadband. I come from a place where no less 
than 60 percent of our students fall below the poverty level, 
and so many of them do not have access to broadband. But also 
in terms of schools, the Army Corps of Engineers did a study in 
2013, Senator, and actually made an inventory of school 
facilities and found that the schools were just in need of 
repair, and a middle school in Saipan--which was built right 
after the war has finally--was destroyed by our recent super 
typhoon and students are now taking classes in tents.
    Having said that, again, in H.R. to consider today we have 
the reopen and restore schools language from the Ed & Labor and 
provide money for $100 million, $100 billion to restore or to 
cancel deferred maintenance for school facilities throughout 
the nation. And so yes, schools are also very in need.
    And if I may, Senator, the Energy Task Force that was by 
law assigned to Interior, nothing has come out of that except 
the organization of the task force. I've been bringing that up 
twice a year at least.
    The Chairman. Yes.
    Mr. Sablan. Thank you.
    The Chairman. I figured as much.
    Congresswoman Radewagen, you get the last word here.
    Mrs. Radewagen. Thank you, Chairman Murkowski.
    With regard to infrastructure, my written testimony that's 
being submitted addresses many of the details and key needs 
there for us. But thank you also for bringing up 
interconnectivity, the internet. I'm not the most tech savvy 
person, but in short, yes, we need both more high-speed 
connectivity and more tech training for our young professionals 
and students at the American Samoa Community College, our only 
community college. Additional broadband grants will provide 
this generation with must-have tools to be part of the virtual 
and teleworking economy that's growing more rapidly than ever 
due to the ongoing health crisis and our local CBOC for 
veterans also heavily relies on internet connectivity for 
telehealth. Investment into telecommunications has increasingly 
become the most important lifeline to the outside world for 
these remote islands, but we are making progress here. And as I 
am live from 7,000+ miles away. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Congresswoman.
    Senator Cantwell.
    Senator Cantwell. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for 
this hearing.
    If I could go back to Congresswoman Radewagen. Samoa has, I 
think, no cases so far but as travel is starting to open up, 
obviously we have had various hearings in the Commerce 
Committee about standards that we would like to see in the 
aviation sector so that there are uniform health standards 
across. What steps do you think need to be taken by the Federal 
Government to have confidence in reopening commercial air 
travel to the island?
    Mrs. Radewagen. Well, I think that, I want to complement 
the Governor here and his task force and the working team on 
the things that they've put into place that has worked very 
well for us at this point in time. And I think that, of course, 
we need more resources, but the Federal Government has been 
working closely with the local government to see that we can 
continue to be the only state or territory that has not a 
single positive case. That's a good thing.
    Senator Cantwell. How do you think people feel about air 
travel at this point?
    Mrs. Radewagen. Well, I think that there are a lot of angry 
constituents out there. People want to travel, always want to 
travel, and it's been tough for us. We only have one airline 
and when that shuts down, nothing moves and it's really by the 
Grace of God that I haven't--here after spending two weeks of 
quarantine in Hawaii and then I managed to get on a flight to 
come down and then immediately into another two weeks of 
quarantine here in American Samoa. I don't know if I'm 
answering your question, but----
    Senator Cantwell. We all care about air travel and it is 
essential for moving goods and services and for our mail, 
medical supplies, so we want our airlines to operate. I am 
asking you because, obviously, it is so much a part of your 
economy, tourism, and my feeling is if we get this right and we 
could get national standards in place, if we could get some 
distancing and some processes and procedures that had to be 
followed, you might get to a level where the public feels more 
comfortable in flying.
    So we have just been pushing for standards, even if they 
are, you know, guidelines that would be implemented by all the 
airlines. Again, we know that American Samoa has a strong 
tourism economy and probably really counts on this, so we are 
just looking for the day that we can get that restarted. Thank 
you.
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Mrs. Radewagen. Yes, and as I mentioned to Senator Hirono, 
it makes sense. I think it makes sense to take a good look at 
that.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Cantwell.
    Thank you, all. I appreciate what you have provided us. I 
think there has been a good review on some lessons learned but 
also how COVID-19 has really helped shine a spotlight on some 
of the disparities that we have, not just within how our 
territories are treated, but some of the disparities that we 
see here in mainland United States. You look at the 
vulnerabilities of so many of our minority populations and you 
think about how we can work to be responsive, again, not only 
when it comes to the health and safety of individuals but then 
how we are responsive to the economic impact as a follow-on 
from COVID-19.
    It is a challenge, but hearing what you have provided the 
Committee today, I think, is a reminder, certainly to me as a 
state that while we are not an island, sometimes we feel like 
an island up there not sharing a common border with the rest of 
the Lower 48, but in a recognition of the reliance of your 
economies on a tourism base that can literally be shutdown 
overnight and be cut off then for not just the period where the 
health is at risk, but again, once you lose that season, you 
lose that season for possibly a year. The fact that so many of 
our territories are still struggling to recover from various 
natural disasters, whether it is the hurricanes in the 
Caribbeans or the most recent earthquakes or the typhoons out 
in the Pacific. These are still very real natural disasters 
that you have not even been able to take a deep breath in your 
recovery to move on to this next one.
    I think the reason that we wanted to have this discussion 
today was to make sure that as we work toward a broader 
national effort toward recovery, that we are not forgetting our 
territories. I don't care, Congresswoman Radewagen, whether you 
are 7,000 miles away or you are 700 miles away, we have a 
responsibility here, and it is just more challenging in certain 
places than others because of the geography, but it is 
respecting the people on the ground where ever they may be.
    I think you are probably going to be fielding some 
questions for the record from other colleagues, and we will 
appreciate your weighing in.
    But use us here in the Energy and Natural Resources 
Committee as a resource if you have more information following 
on that you think we need to know in anticipation of the work 
that we are going to be doing over here in the month of July. 
That would be very helpful and truly, very welcome.
    We thank you for your partnership in this, and we thank you 
for the representation that you provide for your constituents 
as well.
    With that, the Committee stands adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 4:23 p.m. the hearing was adjourned.]

                      APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED

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