[inaudible conversations] good morning everyone. The committee will come to orde order. We are here this morning to review ongoing Recovery Efforts in puerto rico and the Virgin Islands in weeks of Hurricane Irma. We are now over two months removed from when Hurricane Irma devastated st. Thomas and st. John on september 6. Its been nearly 60 days since Hurricane Maria hit st. Croix and puerto rico. This is a little over a week ago that senators cassidys, franken and i, along with senator carper who was just here and senator harris as well as some of our house colleagues visited both st. Thomas and puerto rico. I want to thank both governors, the governor or cello for your hospitality, the time that you gave us during that visit was incredibly important for all of us to see to be on the ground and to be hearing directly from you. I know that some other members of our committee have traveled to puerto rico previously and i thank them for that as well. What i think we observed is that the destruction is very evident. When you consider the totality of the republic that needs to be done, i think in a word it can be said that its over whelming. It is one of those, where you even begin moments. I think we certainly felt that in puerto rico, we felt that in usvi, i mentioned when we were there in puerto rico that ive seen my share of natural disasters, but nothing like this. When you see an entire island that has been devastated, we had an opportunity to be in the air and fly over some of the. It seemed like we never left and at area that had not been hit or devastated in terms of impact. Over to my left. You can see, closer to the front, the panels that remain intact. It looked like somebody smashed into them. In front of senator cantwell. Seeing the impact there, right before senator Cortez Mastro is a picture of some apartments. It had been blasted from one end to another. Clean sweep to these apartment buildings. The blue tarps are certainly coming to be a symbol of the devastation that we see post hurricane. Not just here but weve seen devastation following harvey in houston and in florida. I think you can see just how these have been impacted. Not only did we see this particular scene but another area where the only access to some 200 roads had been cut off by horrible landside on the other side. We had visited with the young woman whose home was on the other side and she had not been able to visit her home since it had happened. A very touching story, one that all of us will remember for a long time. I think we recognize in puerto rico, looking at the damage from the landslide, and appreciating, in the interior rate have such montanist areas, this is still the rainy season. With the number of trees i havent taken down, the slopes and stability during the rainy months is very uncertain. Its very sobering. When you look at this and realize these pictures were taken last week, it is clear evidence there is much to do. It is matched by the spirit of those who live on the island and we thought that and felt that. I dont know whether i am doing some floating here promoting here, but we were reminded there is a resiliently in the people. Members have been given a can of soda that was manufactured and bottled in puerto rico with the that says puerto rico strong. I thought that was prettys cool now they were coming together and reminding each of us of the resiliency of the people of the puerto rico on the people of the u. S. Virgin islands for this is her home and to reinforce our commitment to our fellow americans that we need to do what we can to help rebuild these islands. We also are looking for ways to make electric grid more resilient to future storms. We need to rebuild these grids to prestorm conditions. The electric grid was antiquated before the storms hit the really have asked the question why would we rebuild it to that standard. I think there is broad agreemen agreement, i spoke with colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Congress needs to provide greater flexibility in how those funds can be used. I certainly going to work with my colleagues in the administration to help implement that change. We also know more hurricanes will impact the islands in years to come. We will see roads and bridges that will wash out, residents will face flooding in mudslides, communities will be disconnected from each other in a central grid and some of that is the reality of living on an island in a tropical location. What can we do about it now, right now . Restoring electricity is our main priority. It is harming the health of both local residents and their economy. When i say health mike about things like mental health. Thing about being without power for 60 days. Think about what that means. We see pictures of kids were kind mark using a flashlight from their cell phone. In puerto rico, schools were not open and have not been open for two months now. Think about what happens from an educational perspective. When we talk about health i think we need to be more expensive in our understanding of what the impact of these islands has been. The conditions are awful and tragic are also an opportunity for us to Work Together to rebuild the grid in a smarter manner, bearing the lines for possible directcurrent alternative, i think we need to be looking at this Going Forward with a few things in mind. Making the grid more resilient to future weather events, and in case of damage from future storms, bringing that time frame for repair on the grid, on part of what we see here in the United States. I think we recognize that any one of the 50 states here, whether you are on the mainland or like hawaii and alaska, apart from the continental United States, nowhere would we accept the fact that they have been without power for two months. Particularly the number of people we are talking about. Also we need to work to bring down the overall cost of electricity. We are fortunate to be joined by a very distinguished panel this morning and we will have an equally distinguished panel as this concludes, but they are here to help us better understand the conditions on the ground and what needs to be done at the federal level and what a future electric grid could look like. All of our witnesses can be part of the solution and i am hopeful this hearing will be a step in that direction. I turned to senator cantwell and i look forward to a very informative discussion. Think of rescheduling this important discussion. It has been 69 days since irma struck and 66 days since irma struck and both puerto rico and the Virgin Islands operate in emergency mode. They are struggling with the basic needs, turning on the lights and delivering adequate healthcare. This is unacceptable. The United States is a string strong nation and needs to take care of its citizens. Approximately 3. 4 million citizens and over a hundred thousands citizens in Virgin Islands face challenges as we speak. The federal government needs to do more and it needs to plan in advance. An equitable treatment under medicaid and the unpredictable haphazard treatment of the tax code have dramatically harmed these economies. As a result, puerto rico and the Virgin Islands have suffered from economic contractions in recent years. In response to puerto ricos debt crisis, Congress Passed legislation of 2016. I did not support that legislation. One of the reasons why is it favored more of the interest of the Hedge Fund Shareholders than it did the u. S. Taxpayers. By far, most reaching damages to the electricity grid. This administration has been responsible for restoring the grid along with local orders and they need to do more for the people of puerto rico. I welcome mr. Walker, i supported your nomination and im sure youre the right man to help, but you should hear loud and clear we need to do more. The white fish contract in puerto rico raised particular concerns. In addition to the gao reviewing the matter, the Inspector General in the department of homeland scary reviewing the matter and according to a wall street journal report, the fbi is also best getting. According to a New York Times report, the electrical workers subcontracted by white fish were paid 42 an hour, lineman 63, and yet whitefish built the government 319. Hour. Even if that figure is abnormally high because it included exorbitant charges for room and board, why would a contract specify a separate charge for room and board. The welfare of the puerto rico people, to rebuild the island is my number one concern. I will not stop making sure that the u. S. Taxpayer is not couched in this process. Lets be very clear about this. The reason why my state as many natural disasters, the reason why your mutual aid contract is to rebuild at cost. That is what a mutual aid contract is. Rebuilding at cost. The notion that someone comes in there to gouge the puerto rican government and the u. S. Taxpayer, charging them an exorbitant rate and then writing a contract so that it cant be reviewed properly was a great injustice to the United States taxpayer. When you look at how the situation occurs, we must understand that the federal government here also needs to change his process. I have seen this time and time again in my state whether its fire or a mudslide, where failed Communication Systems cant even be restored to the public because someone is saying, who will pay for this. In the gap, puerto rico made a decision to go with an entity that couched the u. S. Taxpayer. It should have been clear from the very beginning that fema and the u. S. Government would pay on those contracts and it shouldve been done with mutual aid, at cost. We are going to get to the bottom of this. Why . Because we never want to see this happen again. We do not want to be a country where interest of the private sector are patrolling the u. S. Economy, looking for disaster, and then saying i am going to go in there and capitalize on it. People should read and understand case law. Case law on price gouging was this very instance. In a blizzard in the northeast , someone tried to charge more for snowblowers. They knew people had to buy them. We are not going to put up with this kind of behavior in the United States of america when people are in a crisis, in a disaster, the u. S. Government should respond and shouldve said they will be there to restore the utility grid and do it at cost, and thereby get the support. We will have lots of time for questions. There is a fun mental problem with removing the authority of the grid from the people and handing it over to an unelected oversight board. This is what was brought up in a court case yesterday. The mission of the board is to achieve fiscal responsibility and Access Capital markets each means playing nice with bondholders. This is not what our priority is which is getting the lights back on and preventing a continuing humanitarian crisis. Those are the things we must understand as this debate continues. Only a strong independent regula regulator can assure that it operates and consumers pay low prices and utilities move toward a Sustainable Business model and that will be a very long process. I know our colleagues here once talk about how we modernize this for the future, i do too. In the meantime, i will make sure the taxpayers well protected and we do everything we can to flatten any kind of process that exist between bureaucracies and the government of puerto rico to make sure they are not having to play 20 questions about Financial Assistance and aid. The answer from the u. S. Government should be yes and we should be doing it at cost. Thank you madam chair. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses. Thank you senator cantwell. Our first panel this morning will be led by the governor of puerto rico, followed by the governor from the u. S. Virgin islands. We welcome you. Mr. Bruce walker is the assistant secretary for the office of electricity, delivery and Energy Reliability at the u. S. Department of energy. I will note that he has been on a job here for about a month and, as soon as he was sworn in, he was sent to puerto rico or volunteered to go to puerto rico and has been there for much of the time and has been on the ground. I think we will have a great deal to share this morning. We are also joined by Major General e jackson junior who is a Deputy Commanding general for the civil and Emergency Operation for the u. S. Army corps of engineers that has been passed to address the grid system there. Gentlemen, we welcome you to the committee. Governors we certainly appreciate that you have traveled to be with us this morning and we appreciate your time. Thank you to all of the members of the committee for inviting me to testify today before you. I would like to give special thanks to senator murkowski and all of the members from the house and the senate to have taken the time to come to puerto rico to bear witness to the horrific conditions on the island as well as the unbreakable spirit of the people of puerto rico. It is impossible to describe the fury and violence of the storm to the people who did not express it. Irma impacted the island and maria left no corner untouched. Because the full failure of the power grid, major damage to our water systems, airports were rendered unusable and augmentation systems were shut down. I was there when we had a rescue 2000 people from rooftops reaching massive proportion several hours after the hurricane hit. Some others were holding their infant babies and rooftops praying that somebody would pick them up. A few days later, i have to drive several hours northwest to the party island and through the mountainous regions, i had to personally warn folks their dam could collapse because there was no other way to communicate. No phones, no radio, no water, no power, no business is open, little access to road and little access to fuel. I flew over parts of puerto rico that looks like a category five hurricane went through it. Others looked like a bomb was dropped. I personally took food, water and medicine to the people of puerto rico and all corners of the island that had lost their home. Notwithstanding these challenges, and the widespread devastation, we are resilient and were making progress. We are moving from a lifesustaining phase to the recovery. Water restoration is now at 90 . Total mutations is that 75 . Almost all supermarkets and gas stations are i called for an aggressive milestone for Energy Generation and called out everyone involved to make sure we could do everything humanly possible to power puerto rico as quickly as possible. Tomorrow we will have met our second milestone of restoring the energy grid by november 15. 59 of the 60, 58 of the 60 hospitals are connected to the grid and we have started to open schools. Now we have 839 schools that are open. It is important to note that this has risk models characterizing this a 200. [inaudible] this was not partial disaster. This was a total catastrophe we have twin storms that blasted through another state. At catastrophe would have ensued as well. I became governor earlier this year with a challenging task of correcting decades of misplaced priorities. As you are aware, long before the hurricane started, people have been battled by long storm storms. Ive worked tirelessly. Since taking office, embarking on an aggressive agenda of reform. Within six months of taking office, my administration enacted the first budget compliant with the plan. Although weve had our differences we have worked together. and the transformation of electric utilities. Even during the recovery and restoration process we are focused on developing a plan for future electric energy. We are working with members of prepa governing board to bring together top minds on the future of our electric utility. Our team is evaluating options including public and private ownership or a combination there were to achieve greater reliability and resilience for the longterm. We aim to revamp completely the delivery of electric energy in puerto rico. This includes aggressively incorporating Technological Advancements of alternative energy sources, creating frameworks for distributed energy resources, Virtual Power Plants, achieving Customer Engagement and developing a robust regular framework that creates the right market and competitive signals to assure electric power is delivered reliably and efficiently and at a sustainable cost structure. Therefore, i call upon congress to approve bites them an emergency supplemental legislation provides equal treatment for the people of puerto rico compared to what any state in the country would have expected that they experienced similar devastations. Attached to my written testimony i have provided an extensive analysis and documentation of the devastation of the hurricanes, and the federal resources necessary to build a more resilient puerto rico. Work along with thirdparty groups of reputable institutions and organizations. In doing this i am committed, i commit to you today that i believe the most transparent disaster reconstruction in american history. Towards that end i issued an executive order creating the Central Office of recovery and reconstruction of puerto rico which has been tasked with assuring full transparency for all state and federal funds directed towards the island reconstruction. To foster culture of accountability we will create a recovery transparency portal that will not only track the status of recovery but will also provide information to the public about how and where those funds are being used. This great country of ours has always prided itself on leadership, moral values and principles. It has also responded to extraordinary times in extraordinary ways. Madam chairwoman, the whole world is watching. It is time to show that we mean what we say when american citizenship is one and only one. It is time for our homeland to show that we can walk the t