Ed. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and Ranking Member for holding this important hearing. I would like to yield all my time to congresswoman gonzalez. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. The chair recognizes representative gonzalezcolon. Thank you, i want to thank representative rad way began fog her time. He is entitled to his opinion but he does not li in puerto rico, he does not represent the island. No one voted for him. The only ones voted for is the governor and me. Hes a democrat and im a republican, and voters many times rejected him. What were supporting here is what the people of the island voted for, statehood. Thats democracy. Again, anybody can have their own opinion. But coming here the problem is established. We are not treated as equal under the law. The u. S. Congress can do whatever they want with territories. They can do whatever they want with the issue of puerto rico. And yet, we are skill facing a lot of the needs like the state os louisiana, new jersey, florida, texas, that were hit by hurricanes as well. So why treat puerto rico differently than the way you treat other states in times of need. So im sorry that im bringing that issue but i cannot be silent when somebody is entitled to their opinion but not respecting the will of the people of puerto rico. Having said that, i think its important that one of the issues, governor, we are discussing here is that there are many hurdles for the island to manage federal funding because we are a territory. And you were saying a few minutes ago that you were asking regarding to the barges and fema, you were requesting how long those generators are going to be on the island. The fema regional coordinator for the fiona disaster thinks the barges could be contracted for within a month or two or three months, that time. Miss gonzalezcolon for how long . Fema would have to lease those. Ms. Tbons les colon how long will they be there . Governor pierluisi it could be a bit more. The purpose is to give stability to the system while we continue with the fans tomorrow transformation and we continue rebuilding the grid, improving the plants and repairing plans in duh course, and let me say something. Miss gonzalezcolon just to finish that question. How much does the installment of these barges will reduce blackout and brownout . Governor peer louie cease it should help incredibly. Were talking 600 to 700megawatts of capacity. By getting the barges as well as portable yen raters, as the corps of engineers as portable yen raters but they can also lease or contract for additional portable yen raters. Fema estimates that theyll need seven of those portable yen raters, all together. Three barges. Seven generators we should be having 600 to 700 megawatt capacity. Thats a game changer. That will allow us to then repair, continue repair, continue improving the existing generation plant as well as improving the grismed we need to keep in mind that what we need is stable power while we transform our energy system. Miss gonzalezcolon thank you. And for the record this committee did not pass h. R. 5322. There was a consensus bill that got many hearings through the years. With that, i yield back. The gentlelady yields back. The chair associates himself with the remarks. Thank you, governor, for joining us here. Im heart broken about the difficulties that youre experiencing in puerto rico and what the people have endured with the disasters and pain of the aftermath. I think a real point you have made in your testimony and that i suffered and my communities in new mexico, we can appropriate the funds, we can the president can sign bill into law but when the funds dont actually make it to help reduce and resolve the problems on the ground we have not finished our job. And we need to keep raising these issues and exploring that. So would you share a bit more about what has been the barriers to actually getting the funds that have already been obligated, disbursed on the ground . Governor peer louie well both manuel laboy and mr. Rodriguez will be able to expend. Theyre in charge of cbgr and other funds. But let me give you the long story, short. Fema it took fema up to 2020, and maria happened in 2017, to actually give us access to the funds. Most of the funds. And also for a couple of years fema was the one handling the disbursements. It wasnt puerto rico. Finally, fliek 2019, if im correct, if not ill be corrected later, fema allow puerto rico to handled disbursements. But then told puerto rico we need to audit you before you actually candice burst. It was like a predisbursement audit. It made no sense. When Dee Ann Griswold came into her office it took her just a couple of months to remove that altogether, allow us to handle the procurement, the disbursements process, compliant with compliance requirements and that changed the landscape for us. This is about a year, a bit more than a year ago. Thats why you see from then on a significant increase in disbursements. In the case of cbdg, something similar happened. There was a Grant Agreement imposing quite a lot of restrictions on us. And when secretary fudge assumed office it took her a couple of months, until april of 2021, to remove that Grant Agreement or the strict requirements in it. So things you see, an object that is undeniable in our use of cdbgdr funds. Ms. Leger fernandez what you just described is part of the issue with fema. We need to look at it as congress. Are there statutory constraints. Were going to be dealing with many more disasters and wee we need congress to address agentations of fema to deal with these disasters and the pain and the loss. Because what, you know, the stafford act right now cannot do what communities need. Thats clear. But that administratively big changes can be made in terms of removing the bureaucracy and having things move quicker. I think that those two are, its not necessarily the jurisdiction of the committee but we need to look at another area, i would love that you supplement your answer with those who are mind you with expertise an end also the supplemental answer. From your experience, because you are dealing with it on the ground. We are dealing with it on the ground, the subpoena it opposite. Fema does not know how to teal with fire. It is used to dealing with water. But what we are suffering in the southwest is going to be fires. Right . And we need fema to be able to do that. But id love for you to ask in submission, tell us from the ground, this is what we think the stafford act should be modifies from our experience on the ground. So i would appreciate if youd do that. And also, im running out of time but im concerned about the inequity well see if we dont modify when we deal with the farm bill work regard to the Nutrition Program and those kinds of things that do sit i do sit on some relevant committees and think that will be important to address. Thats a problem. Governor pierluisi we would like to be included in the snap program, its only fair we get the same nutrition assistance as our fellow citizens in the states. Ms. Leger fernandez every citizen should be treated the same. The chair recognizes miss gonzalezcolon. Miss gonzalezcolon thank you. We were talking about the situation between fema many people on the island followling this hearing are complaining that we do have a lot of blackouts. I experience those myself. I want to know how it was rejected early this year and the financial oversight Management Board has recently indicated the increased number of customers who intend to go off the grid is going to impact the cash flow of that. Cash they have available to pay any settlement. And Public Opinion is strongly against seeing their utility bills include not only paying for their service but a charge to pay the settlement, regardless of what they consume. My question is, in your view how those restructuring plans affect the Recovery Process of the island in the longterm and if that will prevent them from investing in infrastructure . Governor peer louie having a plan by the federal government is e governor pierluisi having a plan by the federal government is very important. You mentioned the loss of revenue for preba if we return to Renewable Energy sources like we are committed to because of our energy, Public Energy policy law. I am not concerned about that. Let me explain why. On the one hand, people who have solar power will reduce the cost of energy for themselves. Theyll be paying less through the metering system we have no question about it. On the other hand though, people having, using electric vehicles will be consuming more power from preba because instead of spending in fuel theyll be spending in just electricity. And by the way the Transportation Department of federal Highway Authority just approved a plan for stationing electric vehicle chargers on all the major highways in puerto rico. So in addition the way that this is envisioned is that we will be shutting off traditional generation plans as we Renewble Energy come into the system and we have 18 projects right now already approved by the Energy Bureau and the government of puerto rico to add roughly 1,850 megawatts of solar pow we are 200 megawatt battery storage. And well be having, well have another 1,000 meg watts meg ga watts. This will be coming out. Whats going to happen once we keep add regular newble Energy Production in puerto rico, generation in puerto rico will be shutting off the plants of preba that will generate savings. This cannot be viewed as losing a revenue from customers and nog a precarious financial condition. You will not if you generate the savings related to this transformation that is going, there shouldnt be any financial issue for prepa and that needs to be the low they are better. Thats what ill be keeping an eye on in terms of the plan of adjustment. Miss gonzalezcolon a year and a half ago, on the island, what youre doing to ensure luma improves service and the performance metric . Governor pierluisi theres oversight for luma from so many quarters. I do oversight. My chief of staff does oversight. I have an assistant chief of staff on Energy Affairs doing it as well. We have the p3 authority, doing oversight as required by the contract. We have the legislature doing oversight. We have mayors doing oversight. Theresover sight all over the place. What were doing is ensuring that luma improves itser ises have and reduces the duration of the disruptions that were still facing. Miss gonzalezcolon yield back. Thank you. Are you receiving me ok . Yes. What they did in solidarity with the people of puerto rico, you asked for additional time to remark on congressmens made directed particularly toward statehood, id like to afford you three minutes of my time and if ms. Velazquez is still present i the final minute to her and if not i yield the full time to governor pierluisi. Governor pierluisi part of the comments i heard were with procedures for the committee when i was not a member of the committee. Im not in position to comment on that. Our resident commissioner already commented on that. But i have to reply to a couple of statements that were made. The first thing ill say is that most if not all territories that have become states were underperforming the states financially and economically and one of the reasons why they aspire to become states was to do better. For starters. Secondly, all of them didnt have the vote for the president and the vice president. Didnt have voting representation in congress. So they were aspiring to become states because they wanted to have full democracy. To think that you can put that aside just because youre facing a public debt issue or facing a recession in puerto rico misses the point altogether. The second thing that ill say is that there have ban lot of progress in terms of public finances of puerto rico. Two budgets including this one are clearly balanced as certified by the Oversight Board we have. Including the payment of debt. The debt of the commonwealth of preak has already been restructured as well as the prince pal Government Entities in puerto rico we just had two fiscal years with economic growth. 2021, 1 growth. Coming after a 3 reduction in our g. N. Perform. 20222023. 4 growth. And this one is on the same track. Tourism is boomg. Manufacturing is increasing consistently. We have the lowest Unemployment Rate in our history. Labor participation has increased by 5 . We have right now more people employed in puerto rico than ever since 2009 when puerto rico had half a million more People Living in puerto rico. The statistics are there. If anything, theres what were proving is the successful management of the government of puerto rico and its economy. This is not only the credit of my administration. The people of puerto rico and our economic sectors deserve the credit as well. Having said that, we do not get the same deal in key federal programs like medicaid, medicare, s. S. I. , and snap. No question that would help us economically and financially which would be Something Else congress could do to assist the american citizens of puerto rico. We are not coming here to ask for special treatment. Were coming here to be treated the same as our fellow american citizens. We were treated the same with Pandemic Response and what happened is puerto rico was on top, in terms of vaccination we proved when you treat us equally we can do as well or better than anybody in the states. Thats why you always see us saying remember that were american citizens, proud american citizens, and that we simply want full democracy and a fair deal. For the first time, mr. Chairman, theres still time running on my clock. [laughter] with that, with no further comment, unless mr. Soto would like to claim his remaining time . Mr. Soto we had two historic four or fivehour hearings on the status of puerto rico. Followed by a historic compromise on allowing for statehood. Both our prempses and to decolonize puerto rico. We are working to the last minute to ensure we can get a floor vote on that very legislation. I thank you for your leadership and the leadership of the resident commissioner, Jenniffer Gonzalezcolon and i yield back. The gentleman yields. Mr. Obernolte is recognized. Mr. Obernolte thank you. Governor, aye been enjoying your testimony. Id like to continue a line of questioning mr. Gallego started concerning your request for the allocation of 5 billion in directed cbdgdr funding for residential solar. Can you talk a little by about how that money would be used to enhance puerto ricos Energy Resiliency . Yes. First of all this was the chairmans request along with several members of congress and i support it. As i told you, when i add up what we are doing in terms of promoting Solar Energy Systems in puerto rico, incentivizing that, incentivizing distributed energy, microgrid, when you add it all up, i am using, because it is my call, roughly 2. 2 billion of cdbgdr and cdbgmitt funding for that purpose. Which is cbdgdr funding is being used to install solar panels on all buildings being rebuilt due to hurricane marie yasm and provide assistance to small and medium businesses in puerto rico so they can install solar panels and battery systems. In their facilities. Were using 1. 3 billion of cbdgdr funding for microgrids, distributed energy systems, and in remote areas in puerto rico lets tum down on that. This is where my concern lies. So the cbdgdr action plan for Puerto Rico Energy systems, the plan is toe create 159 microgrids within the island. To increase the resiliency of the energy infrastructure. But residential solar, to increase resiliency would have to have a much finer array of microgrids because 159, obviously those are still large areas. Im asking about how this is going to increase resiliency because im concerned that just putting solar panels on a residence, you know, if youre depending on that connection to the utility to prepa, its not going to increase resiliency. I wonder what the plan is. Let me governor pierluisi luma provided for the interconnection of 133,000 new systems in our puerto rico. Theyre interconnected. Theres technology that depending on who is the install ore they have system and who owns it you can have virtual power being yen rated in puerto rico and added to the system in a systematic way. Put that aside. Thats good but doesnt increase resiliency. Governor pierluisi youre making household more selfsufficient. They have battery systems, they can go through a Natural Disaster without losing power. If they handle their systems adequately. But let me say more. Im devoting, 500 million of cbdg mid funding to proride basically Solar Systems with batteries to roughly 25,000 low income households. Why am i supporting the 5 billion proposal chairman grijalva and others in congress for more Solar Systems . Do quick math. If were doing, if were reaching 25,000 households with 500 Million Dollars worth of cbdg fund if we get earmarked funding at the tune of 5 billion, you extrapolate it. Its 0 times more. Then youre talking about 250,000 households. Let me reclaim my time. Let me just ask you, please make sure that when you create the action plan for that funding, if you get it that you create enough microgrids to make it so it increases resil yhency. Thats purpose of d. R. Funding. To increase resiliency. There are other pools of money for residential solar. Your point is well taken and part of what luma is doing is making sure the systems can be interdependent. They can instead of relying on the grid they can be on their own. One thing were doing with industrial scale renewable i yield back, mr. Chair. Appreciate it, sir. To be clear on the proposal for solar and batteries, the issue is batteries where the resiliency comes from primarily and thats an essential part of the proposal. Let me now turn to mr. Tonko. You have five minutes and thank you. Mr. Tonko thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for holding this hearing. Mr. Governor, thank you for joining us today. It was an honor to serve with you, its great to see you. It is so important that everyone has access to clean, affordable, reliable electricity to power homes, businesses, emergency medical centers, Water Treatment plants and so many other critical facilities but Natural Disasters continue to severely damage centralized electric grids causing extensive outages for the entire island. What are some of the economic impacted of an extended outage for people and businesses in puerto rico . Governor pierluisi theres no question when you have a power outage it has an impact on businesses. In puerto rico. As i said before, it took about, you know, two weeks to restore 75 of our power after fiona. So for two weeks, i am sure, that a lot of businesses were not operating. We saw in the month of september a downward movement in our g. N. P. Thats not surprising, our economic index activity report or activity indecks. And thats not surprising. But the way this federal Emergency Management programs work is that they provide individual assistance. So by the month of october, already, fema has disbursed over 600 million which to individuals s. B. A. Was assisting businesses, so the economy, i have no question, i have no doubt that in the month of october, is recovering and then we will continue our course. So the combination of a quicker response or recovery from the blackout and the fema assistance will ensure that this is not going to be like marie yasm maria, it took puerto rico back then, it took prepa back then and took fema back then 11 months to rear to 100 of the pow ore they have island. This is night and day. One thing mr. Tonko that i didnt mention, and i wanted to mention because it is important. We do have industrial scale Global Energy projects ongoing as we speak. But what were considering doing is when off solar farm, lets make a grid. In that area. Lets have that solar farm provide the power for the households and businesses in that area. And right now, i mentioned there are 18 of those project projects ongoing. Itll cant increasing. There are many things ke we can be doing. By the way, the amount of private investment in those 18 projects that im talking about, its about 1 billion. Its not a small amount. So there are lots of things ongoing at the moment. Some of it is using fema funding, using cbdgdr funding but some of it is incentivizing the private sector to come in and add Renewable Energy to puerto rico with the goal of producing 40 of our energy prothe renewble sources by 2025. The immediate goal. By the ways this working, i am confident that well we could reach that goal by 2025. Because there are a lot of projects in the pipeline and if this 5 billion earmark happens, you need to add solar Power Generation of households, you need to add, and my people will give you the statistics later on. You need to add what this industrial scale renewable projects will be yen rating and add add it all and hopefully reach the Renewable Energy portfolio standard that we have set. Thank you, governor. Im thrilled the department of energy recently awarded funding to yen electric in my district to develop and demonstrate new Microgrid Technology in puerto rico. It would automate the process of leverages pow toag one microgrid to restore power to a nearby mike are grid, perhaps one serving a hospital or critically Underserved Community this project will be researched and worked on in my district creating local jobs and innovation, and demonstrated in puerto rico. It shows modernizing puerto ricos grid is essential for ensuring the health and safety of our fellow americans on the island and has mutual benefits for communities all over the u. S. So i look forward seeing this and similar projects advanced to help bring about a clean and just future for all of puerto rico. With that, i yield back. Mr. Bentz. Governor, i wouldnt want your job. Just saying. Under your debt restructuring, the debt was written down in january from 34 billion to 7. 4 billion, a portion of it, and then the office of management and budget created a plan that puerto rico is supposed to be following. Im familiar with these plan, im a lawyer, ive entered into, helped structure Debt Repayment programs for many, many different clients. And consistent performance under the plan is essential the plan is going to work. Governor peer louie are you referring to the governor pierluisi are you referring to the plan of adjustment . Mr. Bentz yes. Inian a federal judge con nirmd plan of adjustment reducing the central governments debt from 34 billion to 7 billion, thats what im referring to. Then as a condition of such reduction, there was a plan. A certified fiscal plan for the commonwealth of puerto rico. What i am concerned about is the report that was issued in the fombs 2022 annual report where the board noted that the puerto rican government has struggled, quote, struggled with implementing reforms and reporting on this implementation in a timely manner, causing progress to be inconsistent and incomplete with many reforms either delayed or not occurring. It goes on we could talk about the implications this has when it comes to trying to obtain money from fema, which the structure you referred to a couple of times where the money is given out frts and then reporting follows. And i also have here a report, fema did not effectivelying many disaster Case Management funds in Hurricane Maria recovery services. The office of Inspector General found fault with the way fema handled funds. I have experience with fema in oregon. The way we made it work, we had systems in place in oregon, will call systems, county system, set up to appropriately respond and as i read this report that does not appear to be the case in puerto rico. And i say that without know, im just trying drawing some conclusions from these reports. But what i would like you to address is this fombs 2022 report writ says that the puerto rican government has struggled with implementing reforms and reporting on this implementation in a timely manner, causing progress to be inconsistent and incomplete. Why does the report say that . I dont want an excuse, call out the cause of the delay. Governor pierluisi some of those reforms that the fiscal plan provides for require legislation. And but the Oversight Board doesnt have the power to impose legislation. So the fiscal plan, to the extent it requires legislation, it depends on the will of the legislature for that to happen or not. So thats the first question. Some of the reforms call for administrative action. There has been undeniable progress in complying with board requirements, the transparency you see in puerto rico you have never seen before. Three financial statement, audited Financial Statements have been published since the beginning of my tenure and we will be up to date by may of next year. All our Financial Statements, audited Financial Statements will be pub learned. Thats an incredible progress for puerto rico. The board complained about legislation that recently was approved in puerto rico providing specific vacation leave for private sector employees as well as some other rights to our labor force which actually we had before there was a reform several years ago, the board complained, went to court, that case is pending, i suspect some of the boards complaints relate to that particular legislation. In terms of my administrations deal wtion the board, we have an effective relationship we dont agree always. There are disagreements but there has been an improvement. Thank you. I yield back. Now recognize the gentleman from chicago, mr. Garcia, youre recognized. Before the representative uses his time, we have votes will be called. Theres also an announcement that my side of the aisle will be at that involves the peeker. And so at some point soon, neighbor 20 minutes or half an hour, im going to call a recess so we can attend to those two things. Speakers announcement and the votes that have been called on the floor. This hearing isnt going fast, nor should it. Well be back and well continue with at that point with whatever is left. But right now, mr. Garcia, youre recognized. Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this critically important hearing to address the political, economic and structural neglect that puerto rico faces as it tries to rebuild. Its been five years since Hurricane Maria devastated puerto rico and other areas and during the reconstruction that followed, many projects were poorlying manied, funding has been insufficient and even available funds have not been disbursed. Then this past september of course, puerto rico experienced another devastating storm, hurricane fiona. So its especially important for us to look frankly at the slow, underresourced reconstruction of the last five years. We have to apply those lessons now. We have to build a sustainable, resilient rate thats responsive to Consumer Needs and need to prioritize consume needs. With that in mind id like to ask my first question to the governor. Governor, good morning. In 2011 you create a Reconstruction Council by executive order that was supposed to help the recommendation consultation and permits for rebuilding in an efficient manner. According to its webpage the Council Published two comprehensive reports in 2021. Let me first ask, whats the composition of the council . Governor pierluisi i cannot tell you from the top of my head but i understand what you have is representation from the home builders, builders association, the a. G. C. , associated general contractors, you have the college of engineers, college of architects, you have mostly all the entities that deal with the Construction Industry in puerto rico. And they advise us regularly through that council. I also created a reconstruction Government Committee that is currently chaired by my chief of staff that meets regularly. Could be weekly, biweekly, to follow up on all reconstruction projects. So it is thank you. But there has been a cheam, significant change in the speed of the disbursements since the Biden Administration came into office and my administration came into office. That is undeniable. Thank you for that. Now this council seems like a significant opportunity to involve local leaders in the rebuilding process. The Community Consultation is essential for developing solutions that actually help the communities that they are meant to serve. What efforts have been made to continue this work and or to include municipalities or Civil Community groups or Civil Society participation . Governor pierluisi i know and our secretary of housing could expand, that were using a considerable am of cdbgdr funding for purposes and n. G. O. s are assisting us for planning purposes. And he could talk about that. In terms of municipalities, were going out of our way to provide funding to municipalities, actually, the proposal we gave to fema to give us a 25 advance of the cost of construction, reconstruction projects, initially was intended to assist municipalities, municipal tirks 75 of the reconstruction projects with fema funding come from municipalities. But they were in the happening because the municipalities didnt have the cash flow to start the projects. You have to understand that fema works based on reimbursement and so the municipalities descrnt the cash flow to hire engineers, a techs, to handle the design and the permit og they have projects and they were not getting off the ground. We convinced fema to give them 25 advance and its been a success. Now fema has allowed us to expand that to agencies and n. G. O. s. Thats making a difference. And again both my secretary of housing and my the head of the agencies in puerto rico could expand when they take their turn on the next panel. Thank you for that. We look forward to hearing from them. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. Thank you. Ms. Leger fernandez youre recognized if youre prepared to ask questions. Mr. Torres, youre recognized sir. Mr. Torres thank you for allowing me the opportunity to ask questions. Thank you, governor, for your public service. Puerto ricos electric grid is so fragile that every Natural Disaster seems to cause widespread Power Outages and it seems to me the achilles heel of puerto ricos electric grid is the lack of redundancy. What progress are you making toward rebuilding the grid with greater resiliency and greater distributed energy. Governor pierluisi first, let me say we need an adequate reserve in terms of generator capacity which we dont have at the moment because of plants failing or in need of repair. Thats why what fema is doing now, getting assistance to increase our Power Generation for specific period of time, its like giving us breathing room while we keep rebuilding the system, improving the system, makes all the sense in the world. In terms of add regular newble energy projects, were going at it. Expeditiously actually. We already have about 1,000 megawatt additional capacity from renewable projects in the design and. Some in the construction stage. With battery support. By be also have a process which is about to be launched for an additional 1,000 megawatt generation capacity from renewable, from solar sources, along with a 500 megawatt battery storage. This is industrial scale projects. But were also submitting or issuing an r. F. P. Process inian to use 1. 3 billion that we destined for microgrid distributed Energy Initiatives in remote communities in critical facilities and the first one that well have, actually, its a microgrid that will handle our central our medical center. The only Trauma Center we have in puerto rico so well continue doing that. But having fema support both on a shortterm basis as well as up to 50 advance of funding is going to make the difference. I had heard, maybe i have a misunderstand, that there were issues with the advanced payments. That advanced payments were based that puerto rico would have to pay the difference. Governor pierluisi thats a different issue which were dealing with as one of my asks to this committee. We are using a section of the stafford act. The way the Section Works is fema agrees with the recipient, with puerto rico, and so the recipient as to the estimate of the cost of the project. And lobs it in. So you need to rif with that estimate. Even if those estimates are rendered obsolete by inflation . Governor pierluisi thats why were asking congress to ask fema to adjust the fixedcost estimates because of the cost of construction materials. So its fair to say neither femas reimbursement programs or femas advance payment prime are mindful of the unique needs of puerto rico. Governor pierluisi we need to improve them stherk answer i can give you. One pending item is the flexibility that fema should have in adjusting fixed cost estimates that have been agreed to a couple of years ago. A couple of years ago or one, two years ago when inflaings was not what we are facing right now. Descrnt the disruption in supply chains weve been facing since the pandemic. Thats why i have this ask for this committee. When i took a tour of puerto rico with you, i noticed that most of the housing i saw was informally constructed. How do we avoid repairing these homes in the same fragile form, does fema provide you with the flexibility you need to rebuild these heams with greater resilience . Governor pierluisi one thing fema is doing is funding a Public Affairs campaign, Public Education campaign, encouraging people to build up to code. To comply with our construction code and permitting system. Is there enough funding for that . Governor pierluisi we got a decent am of funding to do that. But its a Public Education issue. 50 , at least 50 of our households are not code compliant which is to your point. Fema is trying to be flexible in providing assistance to those, the owners of those households. [inaudible] let me ask one general question if i may, governor. Thank you for being with us, much appreciated. The plan to expand, repair, remodel the schools. You know, one of the things i found striking in visiting puerto rico this year as i did, there are many schools that have not been rebuilt or repaired since they were damaged tbhak prix maria in 2017. Is there a lack of progress . What do you see for that with schools . Governor pierluisi weve seen a lot of progress in fixing structural issues with our schools. We had some earthquakes, as you may recall, in early 2020. One school collapsed because of the design of its structural column, defective design. We have fixed, using fema funding, up to, its close to 600 schools already that had those structural issues. We have 2. 2 billion of fema funding to either repair or rebuild schools or build new schools. That is a an ongoing project. The working capital advance is assisting us. The department of education just requested, if my recollection serves me right, a pit more than 40 million in this in the form of a working capital advance which will help it launch higher, engineers, architects, for the dezane and permitting of the schools we need to work on. Thats an ongoing project. Let me ask you one other question, governor. A pathway, a timeline, to where its not just a particular interest of mine, its something i heard over and over. In puerto rico about the schools. And their safety and availability. So you know, thing would be of interest. Governor pierluisi i can supplement my testimony by give jug a status report on the department of education infrastructure prompts. Thats what i was getting at. Luma. Renegotiations. Looking at the contract. One of the things that is noticeable, perhaps you could correct me if im wrong is that the benchmarks that are set that have to be obtained by the contractor, you know, for additional money thats the target, those are the benchmarks. One of the things that to me is glaring is theres no consequences for not. Meeting serch benchmark. Governor pierluisi there are consequences. In the contracts as they exist . Governor pierluisi theres a meth that has cons quepses, the current settlement does not because we have the bankruptcy process ongoing. Because of the uncertainty in having a bankruptcy process for prepa, the parties agreed, meaning the p3 authority, prepa and luma afreed to enter into this supplemental agreement that simply provides luma a fixed fey for its services and the Energy Bureau, along with the p3 authority, monitor lumas performance and periodically report the energy pew roe does how luma is doing in terms of met ribs. And the metrics that so far thats not confusion, governor. And i think we need to clarify that. The opportunity to make some corrections, although many people look for the end of luma as a provider and those voices are not only on the island but also here in congress. Is proiding that information. Where, are we the staff in my reading of it, the downside was there was no consequence. If you could provide it. We wont keep repeating that. Governor pierluisi luma is represented at this hearing, you can ask them directly. Im sure we can supplement my testimony to give you details in terms of the requirements on luma and the way were overseeing lu ma. Thank you, governor. Thank you for your testimony. Were going to call a recess so that those of us who are interested in hearing from the speaker will do so and then take the votes and then come back and begin with the second panel. I apologize for the delay but that was inevitable given the structure of the day and all the stuff thats before us. Governor, again, thank you for your time. Governor pierluisi i thank the commitment, theres been a lot of interest in this topic i appreciate on behalf of the people of puerto rico. And to your credit, and my credit, we kept on time. Appreciate it. [laughter] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2022] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] cspan is your unfiltered vaw of government. Were funded by these Television Companies and more including charter communications. Broadband is a force for empowerment. Thats why charter invested billions, building infrastructure, upgrading technology, empowering opportunity in communities big and small. Charter is connecting us. Charter communications supports cspaas a public service. 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