Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, this weekend I had the honor to work on our budget reconciliation in the Budget Committee. The legislation contains economic development initiatives that I have long championed to create good-paying jobs while lowering costs and cutting taxes for American families. This is the kind of legislation that assures the rest of the American people that they have not been abandoned in their time of need.

The Build Back Better Act is a true job creator, creating millions of jobs while tackling the climate crisis and ensuring that America will not only compete but lead the way to a more prosperous future.

Historic investments in clean energy technology will create 2 million jobs each year over the next decade, while reducing carbon emissions by over 50 percent by the year 2030. We also include investment in workforce training to connect workers to jobs, research and development to strengthen American manufacturing, and access to credit and investment for small businesses.

The Build Back Better Act will also make significant investments in American agriculture. As a member of the Agriculture Committee, we were able to include critical investments in agricultural research, rural development, and renewable energy: $7.75 billion in agriculture research and infrastructure; $18 billion in rural job-promoting investments to ensure those living in rural America, on Tribal lands, and our insular areas have access to clean water and reliable and efficient renewal energy; and $40 billion in investments in forestry programs.

It should concern us, and it concerns me, that CEOs make more than 350 times more than the average worker, that billionaires have seen their wealth increase up to $1.18 trillion during the pandemic, or that 55 of the largest corporations have paid zero dollars in Federal income taxes on over $40 billion of profits.

These are what my colleagues, the Republicans, are calling job creators. Recognize that phrase when you hear them say job creators. It means those CEOs and those businesses that have created wealth for themselves without jobs for the American people.

It is incredulous to me that the top 1 percent has evaded paying an estimated $160 billion in taxes each year while the average American pays his or her taxes every year. Millionaires and billionaires are paying lower taxes than teachers, cops, and firefighters.

But Democrats are bringing legislation that is going to keep America great, that is going to continue to make America the innovators. This is our moment to change the course of progress toward the everyday American.

History will point to this week, this law, as the significant transformation in the lives of the American people and overall success of true American greatness.

Mr. Speaker, as the Member of Congress who represents the Virgin Islands, the only congressional office within the English- speaking Caribbean, the plight of my Haitian brothers and sisters is very close--not just the ones presently enduring egregious and unfair treatment at the U.S.-Mexico border, but our brothers and sisters in the nation of Haiti itself.

The crisis unfolding before our eyes at the border is woefully symbolic of our Nation's inconsistent and superficial response to the reoccurring calamities in Haiti specifically and the Caribbean generally.

The nation of Haiti faces a tremendous, ongoing crisis: the recent natural disasters, including a major earthquake, tropical storms, and hurricanes; the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; health insecurity; the assassination of a Prime Minister and the accompanying political instability; gang violence; along with large-scale deterioration of infrastructure; and poverty.

As we watch our fellow human beings seeking a better life, we need to ask ourselves: Do they deserve the dignity of listening to their story, understanding their desperation, and working to find sustainable, long- term solutions to the problems that cause tens of thousands of people to leave their country, live in abject and hostile poverty in South America, and make the dangerous trek to try to come to America?

I believe, and I think some of you do as well, that our Haitian neighbors deserve that, and that, in some ways, we owe them that, and that it is even in our own self-interests.

We must remember that Haitians fought with us in the American Revolution. They sent troops to be at our side. Then, in 1825, 20 years after they received their own independence, the United States agreed with France that they, as a new independent nation, should be forced to pay back the slave owners of France, who, they believed, needed reparations for lost income from slave labor. Until almost 1940- something, the people of Haiti have been paying that money back. In today's dollars, that would be over $20 billion that this small island nation has paid to the people of France for their freedom.

Imagine if we had been forced to pay England for our own independence.

America has significant trade agreements and economic support with our neighbors to the north and the south, Canada and Mexico. However, when it comes to our third border, the Caribbean, that becomes an absolute afterthought, if they are thought of at all.

America wants these nations to be stable and support them at multinational forums but lacks the forethought to engage them as partners in the first instance. We intervene in political instability without meaningful engagement in civil society.

Hurricane relief and support for resilience, vaccination support, support for trade and educational alternative energy partnerships, infrastructure investments, those are the things that Americans should be engaged in at the first instance so we do not have what we have at the border happening now.

China, of course, is all through the Caribbean, giving lasting and meaningful investments there and demanding support from the Caribbean nations at the U.N., the Organization of American States, et cetera.

It is well-researched fact that rural infrastructure investments can lead to higher productivity, employment, and economic opportunities. Solid infrastructure powers business, encourages trade, provides much- needed protection for countries from the unpredictability of a natural environment, all things that Haiti is missing to date.

Substantively, the U.S. has neglected to develop meaningful, substantive trade relationships in Haiti and the larger Caribbean that could help them and help us. We need to do better.

Madam Speaker, last week, the Ways and Means Committee on which I sit, along with numerous other committees in this House, moved forward toward completing our work to achieve President Biden's and the American people's vision to build back better.

The legislation contains economic development initiatives that I have long championed to create good-paying jobs, while lowering costs and cutting taxes for American families, not American wealthy. This is the kind of legislation that makes America great. This is the kind of legislation that assures the American people that we have not abandoned them in their time of need. To remain the greatest Nation, we must support the most vulnerable portion of America.

Importantly, for my district, this bill contains specific measures for the much-needed economic recovery of the U.S. territories, which have been severely tried in recent years. It fixes longstanding fiscal cliffs related to rebate on Federal excise taxes on distilled spirits production in the territories, our rum cover over. The cover over has been a part of the fundamental tax relationship between the United States and its island territories before there was even an income tax. This bill would repeal the cap that has been imposed on the program since 1984.

In addition, we are continuing to expand the federally funded Child Tax Credit, including reimbursing the Islands' government who pay out the costs for providing the credit. The credit, as expanded in the American Rescue Plan, would be continued for additional 4 years.

This child tax cut has cut child poverty by 50 percent, 50 percent. Cutting child poverty by the child tax cut makes economic sense.

Under the Annie E. Casey Foundation study, America has lost $500 billion a year in lost production due to children who have lived in poverty most of their life because of hunger, leading to loss of jobs, school dropouts, prison, all of these things will now have a way for these children to come out.

Furthermore, we are extending the changes made to the Earned Income Tax Credit in the American Rescue Plan. We increase the value of the Earned Income Tax Credit for workers with no qualifying dependents, and we do that on a permanent basis in Build Back Better.

In addition, we are providing lookback provisions that are necessary for individuals. This important part of the earned income tax credit is premised on the idea that if a taxpayer's earned income was less in a given year than it is in the prior year, the taxpayer may elect to use their prior year's earned income in computing the EITC. That is, this is a 1-year lookback. This will provide stability to taxpayers who have experienced economic shocks in any given year, the same way we do for businesses.

This legislation provides much-needed relief to the U.S. territories from the GILTI tax that was supposed to apply to foreign jurisdictions. Since 2017, there have been significant concerns about the application of the GILTI tax to sovereign territories of the United States, including the U.S. Virgin Islands as well as the other territories, flowing from the treatment of U.S. territories under the Internal Revenue Code.

I am pleased to see the additional accommodations to smaller-sized businesses and the economic activity that will allow jobs and incomes to flourish. For these employers, the possessions wage credit would be increased from 20 percent to 50 percent of eligible possessions wages and allocable fringe benefits for each employee. With these enhanced credits, the Ways and Means Committee acted to provide relief to service-based economies.

I am also excited about the proactive support for disaster resilience. We are providing tools to mitigate the impact of natural disasters by providing incentives for upfront investments.

We are providing strong incentives to attract capital and promote jobs in communities that need it the most, significant resources for rural areas, Tribal communities, and underserved minority communities.

We have affordable housing to help reduce housing inequality and pathways to homeownership, which is about wealth creation in this country.

Democrats have heard the needs and desires of the American people, all American people--Democrats, Republicans, independents, rural, urban, small town, islands even. We are here to help you.

Mr. Speaker, this week the House is expected to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government through December and avoid a government shutdown, which would be catastrophic for families and the economy as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

I am pleased that this bill includes a provision to cancel the outstanding balance of community disaster loans issued by FEMA to the Virgin Islands as well as disaster assistance throughout this country.

The CR also extends the current enhanced rate of Federal matching funds for Medicaid through December 3 of 2021, averting a sharp decline in the rate of Federal Medicaid funding for essential healthcare for the territories and Virgin Islanders living there.

The suspension of the debt limit is also in the continuing resolution, to prevent a default that would trigger an economic catastrophe, not only here but around the world. This suspension is to help pay for President Trump's 2017 tax cut and the original COVID relief bill signed into law by President Trump.

We know from his past practices that President Trump has no trouble keeping debt, declaring bankruptcy. Thank God Democrats will be the adults in the room and make responsible decisions.

Madam Speaker, I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this amendment, and I yield myself 3 minutes.

Madam Speaker, I first want to give a little bit of a history lesson and some information to my colleagues here.

The Virgin Islands and the territories, many of whom are outside of the customs zone, when one comes to the U.S. Virgin Islands in order to get to the mainland, you must go through Customs and Border Protection presenting passport, et cetera, as you would in a foreign country.

My amendment responds to the need for an expedited nonimmigrant visitor visa program in the U.S. Virgin Islands that is now currently available to other U.S. territories outside of the U.S. customs zone in the Pacific, which would aid the Virgin Islands in allowing more visitors. Specifically, the Virgin Islands is seeking authority to extend the special nonimmigrant visitor visa waiver program that is currently available in Guam and Northern Marianas.

Adding the Virgin Islands to this existing nonimmigrant visitor visa waiver program would allow the Department of Homeland Security to consider approving visa-less entry into the Virgin Islands up to and limited to 45 days primarily for residents of neighboring Caribbean countries. This would better enable the Virgin Islands to compete economically with other islands and nations in the Caribbean.

It would apply solely to the Virgin Islands, and because we are outside of the customs zone by law, like other U.S. territories, it would not allow visa-less entry into any other part of the United States.

It would allow individuals from other Caribbean islands to come into the Virgin Islands on an expedited visa process, which would lead to increased tourism, greater opportunities to host international events, and support our small business and medical facilities.

For example, the Virgin Islands annually hosts numerous yacht shows and regattas, which could yield additional economic support, except for the fact that we have a longer entry for our neighbors to come into the territories.

Similarly, our young people cannot compete with our neighboring islands which are much closer to us than the United States. The U.S. Virgin Islands is over 1,000 miles to Florida, as opposed to the Bahamas, which is only 180 miles to Miami. Cuba is only 300 miles to Miami. We are way down the Antilles chain.

This amendment would remain reasonably limited in scope to the Caribbean community and other countries approved by the Department of Homeland Security.

The provision also allows the Secretary of Homeland Security to suspend waivers to any individual or countries if they pose a risk to law enforcement or security interests of the

United States or at the secretary's own discretion.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I find it very interesting the concern that my colleague has for the U.S. Virgin Islands when we don't get the economic support from that side of the aisle that would allow us to mitigate the need for opening our shores up to our Caribbean neighbors.

As you can find out, we have received technical assistance from the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Chief Counsel, as well as the Office of Field Operations, in the process of developing this visa program. As I am sure my colleague is aware, under the auspices of this program, it does authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security to exclude or remove a country from the visa waiver program list if the Secretary determines inclusion would represent a threat to the welfare, safety, or security of the United States or its territories and its commonwealth.

I find the use of birthright tourism in Saipan, if you would look at the data, is only a very small percentage of the overall visitors and that the related costs are outweighed by the extreme tourist and economic benefits to the Pacific.

I also find it interesting that he is concerned about what is happening on the border at this time, considering that most of the individuals who are coming through that border are much closer, coming from countries, including that of Haiti, which are much closer to Florida than they are to the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The thought that individuals would take the time and the resources to come to an island nation where they would have to go through Customs and Border Protection to move into the mainland is in itself a discussion that negates what he is concerned with.

Additionally, as for drugs, yes, the Virgin Islands does have a problem with drug transportation, which is going through the U.S. Postal Service. I don't think any of these visitors would be the individuals being put into the mail and going through the U.S. Postal Service.

Madam Speaker, I ask for adoption of this amendment. It is germane, and it is related and worked through from Homeland Security.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. Prostate cancer has led male cancer incidence in 96 countries. It is the most common cause of death among men in 51 countries. The United States leads the world in reducing prostate cancer deaths.

One in eight U.S. men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes. African-American men are over 75 percent more likely to develop prostate cancer compared to White men and more than twice as likely to die from the disease.

It is important for our men to understand that there are usually no early warning signs for prostate cancer. For many years the disease may be silent. That is why screening is such an important topic for all men and their families.

Age is the biggest risk factor for prostate cancer; rates of diagnosis steadily rise as men age into their fifties, sixties, and seventies.

I have family members and close male friends who have suffered from prostate cancer but underwent surgery and survived. Ask for early screening, and please be aware of this month as we go through prostate cancer awareness.

Madam Speaker, I understand the importance of passing legislation that will make much-needed investment in our Nation's infrastructure. And as the representative of the Virgin Islands, a place where modern infrastructure resilience to climate change is needed, I am committed to making that happen.

President Biden's Build Back Better agenda is not just about fixing our Nation's crumbling infrastructure, it is also about strengthening the economy, creating jobs, helping Americans afford the rising cost of living. These critical investments will not be possible without passage of a budget resolution.

Passage of a budget resolution gives House Democrats the opportunity to make sure we are not just investing in infrastructure, but also reducing carbon emission, restoring transit funding, reconnecting neighborhoods, and ensuring climate-resilient and affordable investment in our crumbling wastewater infrastructure, all of which are needed in my home.

Ensuring a bicameral reconciliation process, with input from the people's House prior to the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure legislation, is essential to advancing critical American priorities on infrastructure and so much more. That is why I know Democrats will work together and take the first step to enact a budget resolution this week.

Mr. Speaker, while the American Rescue Plan is changing the course of the pandemic and delivering relief for working families, this is no time to build back the way things were. We, in the Virgin Islands, can tell you that after suffering not one, but two Category 5 hurricanes in 2017. This is our moment to reimagine and rebuild a new economy.

Let it be known, the American Jobs Plan is an investment in America, that it will create millions of good jobs, rebuild our country's infrastructure, and position the United States to outcompete China and others.

Public domestic investment, as a share of the economy, has fallen by more than 40 percent since the 1960s. The American Jobs Plan will invest in America in a way we have not invested since we built the interstate highways or won the Space Race.

The United States of America is the wealthiest country in the world, yet we rank 13th when it comes to overall quality of our infrastructure. After decades of disinvestment, our roads, bridges, water systems are crumbling. Our electric grid is vulnerable to catastrophic outages. Too many lack affordable, high speed internet, and quality housing.

The past year has led to job losses and threaten economic security, eroding more than 30 years of progress in women's labor force participation. It has unmasked the fragility of our caregiving infrastructure. And our Nation has fallen behind its biggest competitors on research and development, manufacturing, and training.

It has never been more important for us to invest in strengthening our infrastructure and competitiveness, and in creating the good-paying union jobs of the future.

Like great projects of the past, the President's plan will unify and mobilize our country to meet the great challenges of our time: the climate crisis and ambitions of an autocratic China. It will invest in Americans and deliver jobs and opportunities we all deserve.

But unlike past major investments, the plan also prioritizes addressing longstanding and persistent racial injustice. The plan targets 40 percent of the benefits of climate and clean infrastructure investment to disadvantaged communities. The American Jobs and Family Plan assists in creating equity and wealth creation in communities of color, which helps all Americans.

The American Jobs and Family Plan will transform transportation infrastructure, addressing historic inequities, and increasing resilience. It will bring broadband coverage to 100 percent while reducing costs, create jobs in renewable energy, revitalize our schools, veterans' hospitals, and support our essential home care workers.

The bill will strengthen financial security of working families through an increase in funding for key nutrition initiatives: SNAP, WIC, child nutrition, rural development, including broadband, rental, and other housing initiatives, and access to healthcare.

This will ensure a clean, affordable, and secure energy future by investing over $14 billion in clean energy and science, which will create tens of thousands of good paying jobs. We will also make sure K- 12 educational institutions have the resources they need, with robust investment in Title I and special education, Pell Grants, and other financial assistance so students' success is not limited by their income or their ZIP Code.

We will provide strong funding for minority-serving institutions, like HBCUs, like in my own district, the University of the Virgin Islands, along with Hispanic-serving institutions, and Tribally- controlled colleges and universities.

The American Jobs and Family Plan will honor our responsibility to our veterans by supporting them with investments in veterans' healthcare, including women's healthcare and mental health, combating veterans' homelessness, creating economic opportunities, and rebuilding military infrastructure.

House Democrats are supporting the Jobs and Family Plan, which will advance justice and opportunity, secure opportunities for underserved businesses, low-income communities, communities of color, rural communities, and others too often left behind.

Democrats believe that we should invest in what we value as a Nation. We are investing in the American people, American economy, and our American values of opportunity, prosperity, and justice for all.

Madam Speaker, Democrats are making sure that as a nation we build back better to create more jobs, cut taxes, and lower costs. President Biden's and congressional Democrats' economic plan to build from the bottom up and the middle out is working. America is getting back to work, and working families are seeing the results.

Jobs are coming back. Under President Biden's leadership in the past 6 months, the economy has gone from creating only 60,000 new jobs a month to creating 60,000 jobs every 3 days. Wages are rising. American workers are seeing long overdue pay raises, bringing home more money to their families, and powering economic growth that comes from the bottom up and the middle out.

Paychecks are growing.

The economy is growing. Thanks to Democrats' leadership, the economy is growing faster than at any time in the last 40 years. Independent projections from the Federal Reserve, the World Bank, and many others all forecast America this year reaching the highest levels of growth in nearly four decades; and small business optimism is back to pre- pandemic highs.

Mr. Speaker, the Biden administration's proposed $2.65 trillion American Jobs Plan contains a commitment of resources and investments to overcome structural economic inequity, driven by decades of racial and gender discrimination and exclusion.

In addition to being undercapitalized by the PPP in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Black business owners experienced an acute decline of 41 percent in their numbers; Latinx businesses fell by 32 percent; Asian businesses, 26 percent. Compounding these inequities, Black, Indigenous, and people of color, particularly, women of color, have been hardest hit by unemployment and job losses.

These groups have been left behind and held back for far too long, resulting in multigenerational poverty, wage, and wealth gaps. To meet the moment, House Democrats are proposing systemic solutions rooted in equity to ensure prosperity for all Americans. These solutions are driven by targeted, long-term investments to improve our infrastructure by igniting our economy for equity, baking in accountability to equitable practices and outcomes and fostering an ecosystem where the safety, health, and well-being of the people are a priority.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill.

On January 6, we witnessed one of the darkest days in our history, a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol during the formal counting of the votes on the election of a President. They attempted to destroy our House, the people's House.

As the elected stewards of this House, it is our responsibility to investigate the breakdowns and breaches in security that failed us, that led us to January 6.

It is our collective responsibility to use the authority given to us for a select panel devoted solely to the proper and thorough investigation of the facts and causes of the attack; not just the attackers, but the conspirators and the enablers.

If you can't protect the people's House, God help your family's house if the former President wishes to loot that as well.

Madam Speaker, consideration and passage of this resolution today is timely, as Americans across the Nation prepare to celebrate Fourth of July, the signing of our Declaration of Independence. Our country was founded on a democratic process of fair elections. I cannot think of a more genuine celebration of our independence than the commitment to protect our democracy.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of my bill, H.R. 3434, the Territories Health Equity Act of 2021.

This bill will address the existing inequalities the territories face under Medicaid, Medicare, and other Federal health programs. Importantly, regarding Medicaid, it would provide us with the equitable share of Federal funding for Medicaid beyond the upcoming fiscal cliff when much of the existing funding for the territories is scheduled to expire at the end of September 2021.

In the midst of a global pandemic, with more Federal attention on how healthcare funding disparities have had a deleterious impact on the finances of local governments and hospitals throughout the country, we believe this is an opportune time to press for equity in Medicaid and Medicare.

The inequities in Federal funding provided to the territories for Medicaid and Medicare have put access to affordable healthcare out of reach for too many in the Virgin Islands and the other territories, making our hospitals' emergency rooms the primary healthcare provider for one-third of our population without health insurance, which contributes to unmanageable costs. Please support H.R. 3434.

Mr. Speaker, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of this amendment. This amendment proposes a technical change in title 5 of this bill, the Disclosure of Tax Havens and Offshoring Act, to simply clarify that a ``tax jurisdiction'' includes either a country or a jurisdiction that is not a country but has fiscal autonomy.

My concern, as the bill presently states, is that certain words used in that part of the bill will be highly

problematic to U.S. territories, including my district, and our efforts to address very important tax policy issues that have arisen in the last few years.

My amendment seeks to correct the bill's definition of a tax jurisdiction by removing its words explicitly analyzing U.S. territories without the United States. While these specific words separating the territories from the rest of the United States would be removed, the rest of the language would be left as it currently exists in the bill: A ``tax jurisdiction'' would mean either a country or a jurisdiction that is not a country but that has fiscal autonomy.

My concern is with the language to explicitly distinguish U.S. territories from the sovereign United States in such a way.

First, it would be inconsistent with the current structure of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which this bill seeks to amend. Under that law, each of the U.S. territories are defined and treated as States.

Secondly, it would be contrary to the position that the United States has taken in its deliberations with the European Union and the OECD in response to blacklisting of U.S. territories in 2017 and 2018.

A letter from the Secretary of Treasury to the Council of the European Union addressing this issue reads: ``The United States disagrees with the Council's decision to consider U.S. territories separately from the United States.''

It would be more difficult for the United States to make this argument if legislation is adopted by Congress lending credence to the argument that U.S. territories should be treated as tax jurisdictions without the United States as a whole.

Importantly, treating the U.S. territories as separate tax jurisdictions distinct from the sovereign United States would also be inconsistent with efforts that U.S. territories have been making for relief from tax increases intended for foreign tax jurisdictions that were unfairly imposed on U.S. territories by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Lastly, I have concerns about the language at issue categorizing U.S. territories as fiscally autonomous. They are, in fact, legally possessions of the United States under the tax code to this day. One of the U.S. territories is currently in a state of bankruptcy. The U.S. Virgin Islands has no control over its income taxes and cannot sever itself from the mirror code tax system of the United States, and has extensive and longstanding written agreements in place with the IRS requiring exchange of tax information.

Thus, all I have requested with this technical amendment is that the bill language be slightly adjusted to remove words explicitly referencing U.S. territories as tax jurisdictions distinct from the sovereign United States. I believe this would be more fair to the sponsors of this measure because it would in no way impede the effect of its policy; the meaning of tax jurisdiction would remain as either a country or ``a jurisdiction that is not a country but has fiscal autonomy.''

Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), the chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee.

Mr. Speaker, since I have assurances from both the chairwoman and the committee that they will continue to work with us to ensure that U.S. territories are not treated as tax havens but that we are, in fact, individuals who intend and continue to intend, through our governments, to pay our taxes to the Internal Revenue Service and continue to be treated equitably as part of the United States, at this time, I yield back the balance of my time and I withdraw my amendment.

Mr. Speaker, it is spring, the beginning of summer, but it is also Caribbean-American Heritage Month this June. It brings me great pride to join Virgin Islanders and other Caribbean people across the country in celebrating Caribbean-American Heritage Month.

As a Virgin Islander and an American of Caribbean descent, I am proud to celebrate the life, legacy, and achievement of Caribbean people in this country. Virgin Islanders and other Americans of Caribbean lineage have made enormous contributions to the United States through academia, athletics, the arts, and more.

Caribbeans have been involved in this country since its inception, such as des gens de couleurs libres, who included 800 French-Caribbean soldiers, 500 of whom were Haitian free men of color who fought at the battle of Savannah for the Colonies in the American Revolution.

Caribbean-American Heritage Month was officially celebrated and recognized on June 5, 2006, by Presidential proclamation signed by President George W. Bush. It had been unanimously adopted in the House in 2005 through the unwavering power of our colleague Barbara Lee, who sponsored the legislation. Since 2006, the White House has released an annual proclamation recognizing June as National Caribbean-American Heritage Month.

Caribbean Americans have added to the history, culture, and communities in America in countless ways. The unique relationship between the United States and the Caribbean has enriched both regions, and this month is a wonderful time to celebrate our shared past and our future.

We should also look for opportunities for us as Americans to pursue new partnerships on a number of issues with the Caribbean. From trade, immigration, disaster preparedness, poverty eradication, and ending HIV/AIDS, the United States and the Caribbean share a number of mutual policy interests.

This year, the COVID-19 pandemic adds a new challenge to both our country and our Caribbean neighbors. I will keep fighting to ensure that the United States works to be an active and constructive partner in safeguarding the health and welfare of our third border.

The people of the Caribbean are as much a part of the fabric of this country as anyone else. We are not monolithic, nor do we represent one culture, one ideology, or even one ethnicity.

Alexander Hamilton, the drafter of the United States Constitution and our first Secretary of the Treasury, was born on the island of Nevis and spent his childhood and formative years on my home, St. Croix, in the Danish West Indies, what is now the Virgin Islands.

Caribbean-American heritage not only flows through the fabric of this country; it also flows through the Halls of Congress every day. Shirley Chisholm, a personal hero of mine, was the first African-American Congresswoman and the first Black woman to run for President, nominated by a major party. Her heritage hails from Barbados and Guyana. Without her, Caribbean women, even Black women, myself, and many other of my colleagues would not be here today: Yvette Clarke, Jenniffer Gonzalez- Colon, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sheila Jackson Lee, Frederica Wilson, former Members Mia Love and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and many more. Even our current Vice President, Kamala Harris, is of Jamaican descent.

The Caribbean people have done so much more than just fight and make laws for this country. That doesn't even scratch the surface. The building we are standing in right now was designed by Dr. William Thornton, who was born on the island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. The symbol of our democracy was designed by a Caribbean American.

Our works in the arts are felt every day: news commentators Joy Reid, Yamiche Alcindor, Karine Jean-Pierre; from Sidney Poitier, the first Black man to win an Academy Award, to Kerry Washington. Who can forget Cicely Tyson and Harry Belafonte; great minds like Edward Wilmot Blyden, the father of Pan-Africanism; Denmark Vesey; Malcolm X; and Stokely Carmichael.

In music, we have managed to not only be great but iconic as well: Maxwell, who is considered to be the godfather of neo-soul and the R&B movement; Biggie Smalls, a fellow Brooklynite born to Jamaican parents, changed hip-hop forever; and Nicki Minaj, who is changing it even more in the modern era.

Some of the greatest athletes of our time are Caribbean, from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whose family is from Trinidad, to Tim Duncan, from my home on St. Croix, who was just elected to the hall of fame, and even Ramon Harewood in the NFL.

During this unique time in our country's history, I encourage everyone to learn more about the contributions of Caribbean Americans.

Madam Speaker, the Virgin Islands of the United States sits at the most southern, most easterly point of the United States. Because of this geographic position and its proximity to South America and its almost sentry lighthouse position to the rest of the Caribbean, it has been fought over; exploited by many nations; owned by seven; and used as a base by pirates, privateers, rum and drug runners, and even great corporations.

Despite so much potential, the benefits of our location, climate, our deep ports--one of the deepest in the Caribbean, our fertile soil--the people of the Virgin Islands have not received equitable return on investment and have instead been the spoils of others.

Our people continue to work to create economic benefits for our homes, jobs, skills, revenue, financial independence. Our journey in oil refining is one such chapter in that search.

In the 1960s, the Virgin Islands began refining oil. Our island of St. Croix became the second-largest petroleum refinery in America. In 2012, the refinery closed, exacerbating the shocks of the Great Recession, leading to unemployment rates of 18 percent. Our government made the decision to work to bring the refinery back and, after several years, the terminal and refinery reopened.

In the last few weeks, my office has been in contact with the EPA regarding air emissions incidents, odors, and emissions around the vicinity of the refinery, which threaten the health of residents and our environment.

On May 14, the EPA ordered Limetree Bay, the owners of the terminal and refinery, to pause all operations on the St. Croix refinery due to multiple improperly conducted operations that present an imminent risk to public health. Limetree Bay is in a community that is disproportionately affected by environmental burdens, and recent incidents have raised significant environmental justice concerns.

My office has continued to discuss with the EPA regarding the shutdown of the refinery, which, when fully operational, contributes tremendously to the Virgin Islands' economy. I have also been in contact with the owners of the refinery, as well as the Virgin Islands local government, and I will share with you all, with this Congress, what we can do to rectify the issue.

But part of my concern and one of the reasons I came to Congress was to create mechanisms and funding, incentives so that communities like the Virgin Islands, places long-neglected, can have the tools, funding, incentives, stable schools, healthcare, to create diverse sustainable industry.

As I have said in the past, and continue to reiterate, the current problems in my community further demonstrate the need for so many communities like it to have a diversified economy. This would provide flexibility. A diversified economy creates an economic health in a community, not tied to a single industry or market sector. It also creates and supports innovation.

Not only do companies support one another financially, but they engender an ecosystem of new ideas and product generation. I recognize that funding from the American Rescue Plan should not only be used by the Virgin Island's government to undergird our most vulnerable citizens, our children, mentally ill, our seniors; it should be used to support creation of clean resilient jobs.

I and other Democrats recognize that we must rebuild our communities and our economy better than before through the American Jobs Plan. Now is the time to think boldly with a once-in-a-century investment to create millions of good-paying jobs to ensure America can outcompete any other country in the world.

The President has promised to deliver clean drinking water, a renewed electric grid, high-speed broadband; build, preserve, retrofit more than 2 million homes and commercial buildings; modernize our Nation's schools and childcare facilities; upgrade veterans' hospitals and Federal buildings.

The President's plan includes $20 billion for new programs that will reconnect neighborhoods like the Virgin Islands, cut off by historic investments, and ensure new projects increase opportunity, advance racial equity and environmental justice, promote affordable access, safeguard critical infrastructure and services, and defend vulnerable communities.

President Biden will call upon Congress, our body, to ensure that new jobs create clean energy, and manufacturing and infrastructure are open and accessible to women and people of color. The House is working on this. We have a historic package to build back better, creating jobs and justice.