{"id":8110,"date":"2023-02-09T23:46:08","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T23:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.usviodr.com\/?p=8110"},"modified":"2026-04-12T11:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T11:59:12","slug":"governor-bryan-gives-update-on-state-of-u-s-virgin-islands-to-senate-energy-and-natural-resources-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.usviodr.com\/es\/governor-bryan-gives-update-on-state-of-u-s-virgin-islands-to-senate-energy-and-natural-resources-committee\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor Bryan Gives Update on State of U.S. Virgin Islands To Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Governor Bryan Gives Update on State of U.S. Virgin Islands
\nTo Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee<\/h1>\n

Governor asks senators for assistance with expanded cost-sharing waivers for federal grants, rum cover-over, health care disparities, EPA resistance to restarting refinery and energy issues.<\/em><\/p>\n

U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS \u2014 Governor Albert Bryan Jr. updated Congress on the state of the Territory on Thursday, February 9, during the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing.<\/p>\n

During his opening remarks, Governor Bryan highlighted expanded cost-sharing on federal grants, rum cover-over, health care disparities, resistance by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to restarting refinery and energy issues and requested Congress assistance in mitigating those challenges to the U.S. Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have the money; it\u2019s already been allotted and allocated. We just need cooperation between our federal government divisions,\u201d the Governor told the committee members.<\/p>\n

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Governor Bryan speaks with Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) after the committee hearing.<\/h6>\n

To watch the Senate Committee hearing, go to www.energy.senate.gov.<\/p>\n

While a major portion of the hearing was focused on the Pacific territories and the current issues between the United States and China, Governor Bryan had an opportunity to provide details to the senators about inflation, workforce development and the lack of sufficient health care workers in the Territory.<\/p>\n

Committee Chairman Senator Joe Manchin (D-W. Virginia) asked about inflation in the territories, and Governor Bryan detailed how the Territory\u2019s current 5 percent inflation rate is affecting Virgin Islanders.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnergy is 63 cents a kilowatt-hour, compared to 12 here,\u201d Governor Bryan said. \u201cConstruction, a public housing unit is costing us $380,000 to $500,000 per unit, and construction has tripled in cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado) asked the governors what their greatest challenge is, and Governor Bryan responded that it is finding enough workers to fill all the jobs on dozens of recovery projects throughout the Territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost 20 percent of our population in the last decade because of the hurricanes, the closing of the refinery and the recession,\u201d the Governor said. \u201cWe need as much people as possible. We need 5,000 additional workers, that\u2019s over 5 percent of our population, and 10 percent of our workforce to complete this recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to a question from Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) about the lack of health care workers, Governor Bryan said he is trying to ease that lack using federal funding, but the situation remains challenging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ARPA funding has been so useful because it is so flexible and you can use it in so many ways. We\u2019re incentivizing nurses and medical personnel on the whole to move to the islands,\u201d Governor Bryan said. \u201cBut housing and everything else is expensive. Incentivizing them is good, but not only are they lesser paid but there\u2019s a higher cost of living, so it\u2019s like a double-whammy. Being able to pay more would be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other governors appearing on the panel before the Senate Committee were Governor Pedro Pierluisi of Puerto Rico; Governor Lourdes Leon Guerrero of Guam; Governor Arnold Palacios of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands; and Governor Lemanu Mauga of American Samoa.<\/p>\n

The Bryan-Roach Administration is investing in the Territory\u2019s people, infrastructure and future through transparency, stabilizing the economy, restoring trust in the government and ensuring that recovery projects are completed as quickly as possible. Visit transparency.vi.gov<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Governor Bryan Gives Update on State of U.S. Virgin Islands To Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Governor asks senators for assistance with expanded cost-sharing waivers for federal grants, rum cover-over, health care disparities, EPA resistance to restarting refinery and energy issues. U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS \u2014 Governor Albert Bryan Jr. updated Congress on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"project_id":"","notification":"","due_date":"","status":"","show_rebuild":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,154],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-viodr-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usviodr.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usviodr.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usviodr.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usviodr.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usviodr.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.usviodr.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20279,"href":"https:\/\/www.usviodr.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8110\/revisions\/20279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usviodr.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usviodr.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usviodr.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usviodr.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}