[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 20208]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                WE NEED TO RESTART PUERTO RICO'S ECONOMY

  (Miss GONZALEZ-COLON of Puerto Rico asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Miss GONZALEZ-COLON of Puerto Rico. Mr. Speaker, Puerto Rico's 
economy is the most vital aspect in bringing back some sense of 
normalcy to the lives of 3.4 million American citizens on the island 
after the devastating impact of both Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
  Puerto Rico's economy had already been in a decline prior to these 
unprecedented natural disasters, due mostly to the island's outdated 
and discriminatory territorial status.
  Tax reform presented this Congress with the historic opportunity to, 
even if only partially, fix these longstanding inequities by granting 
Puerto Rico equal treatment to that of the 50 States.
  While we are grateful for the extension of federally qualified 
opportunity zones in this bill to the island, I believe that there is 
broad recognition on both sides of the aisle that more needs to be done 
in the future.
  Congress must live up to its responsibility and act decisively to end 
years of improvisation by implementing sustainable pro-growth economic 
policies that are based upon the bedrock principles of citizen equality 
and political empower, and my constituents deserve no less.

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