USVI Governor meets with Obama administration officials
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| Published on Thursday, July 23, 2009 |
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By Susan Mann
Caribbean Net News USVI Correspondent
Email: susan@caribbeannetnews.com
WASHINGTON, USA -- US Virgin Islands Governor John deJongh met with top officials in the Obama Administration on Tuesday, including Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Doug Shulman and Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius.
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| Governor and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius |
DeJongh also met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Majority Whip James Clyburn as the territory’s Chief Executive continued a week of meetings in the nation’s capitol to advance key policy issues in his Administration, including taxation, strengthening the EDC program, resolution of outstanding tax audit issues with the IRS, and continuing the push for fair and equal treatment of all Virgin Islanders in national healthcare reform.
DeJongh also met with Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico to discuss pending National Park issues and with Rep. Jimmy Duncan, a leading Republican on the House Transportation Committee to lobby for additional funding for the territory’s highways.
The governor held in-depth discussions with IRS National Taxpayer Advocate, Nina Olson, in an effort to resolve a long-standing dispute between the local government and the IRS over the continued auditing of EDC beneficiaries.
“The issues of statute of limitations and residency have been hovering over the US Virgin Islands for some time. The lack of taxpayer certainty caused by the arbitrary and unjustified position of the IRS in refusing to recognize a statute of limitations for the US Virgin Islands has eroded an important revenue stream to our treasury and has jeopardized a program that was lawfully sanctioned by Congress to solidify the financial footing of the territory,” deJongh said during a meeting with the IRS Commissioner and the National Taxpayer Advocate.
After the meeting, the governor said “more work lies ahead in this area but we made significant progress towards the resolution of this critical issue.”
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| Governor De Jongh with IRS ommissioner Doug Shulman |
DeJongh’s second day in Washington was also highlighted by a meeting with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. DeJongh spoke to Acting Health Commissioner Julia Sheen about the need to build a strong partnership with the Obama Administration to finally end the discriminatory treatment of American citizens living in the US Virgin Islands.
“Our Medicaid program is grossly under funded and not a full entitlement program. As a result, we are able to provide Medicaid health care coverage to only about seven percent of the US Virgin Islands,” deJongh said.
The territory’s low percentage when compared to the 20% national average is due to the fact that the current limits on federal Medicaid to the US Virgin Islands allow the government to provide Medicaid coverage only to those below 50% of the federal poverty level. Most states are able to provide coverage to up to 100% of the federal poverty level.
“This is a huge and unacceptable disparity,” deJongh said.
The governor explained the need to work together to help make the children and all citizens of the US living in the territory healthier by ensuring that they receive appropriate and needed heath care services. “As you can see, we are transforming our program and working to expend all available federal funding.
Nonetheless, in order for us to develop and run a full Medicaid program that provides necessary services to those in need, especially our children, we need and deserve a state-like full-entitlement program. This means a lifting of the Medicaid cap and a formula-driven federal matching rate based on our relative income levels.
On Wednesday, deJongh was due to meet with the Chief Financial Officer of the Rural Telephone Financing Cooperative Steve Lilly and later with various tax attorneys to further the discussion on resolves federal taxation issues. Meetings were also on the agenda with Representatives Sander Levin, Joseph Crowley and Senator Mark Udall (D-CO). | | | | Reads : 644 | | | |
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