[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 12 (Wednesday, February 9, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
     INTRODUCTION OF BILL TO AMEND THE REVISED ORGANIC ACT OF 1954

  (Mr. de LUGO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. de LUGO. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing legislation that 
would enable the Virgin Islands Legislature, if it so decides, to 
recast the framework of the territorial government so it may better 
respond to circumstances that today are far different from those 
envisioned by Congress when it implemented the Revised Organic Act of 
1954.
  The act sets forth the fundamental structure of the Virgin Islands 
territorial government, but now, 40 years later, conditions are much 
changed and the demands on the local government are far greater. Many 
Virgin Islanders, particularly on the island of St. Croix, believe the 
community has outgrown the boundaries that Congress proscribed in the 
Revised Organic Act almost two generations ago.
  In 1954, the Virgin Islands was a sparsely populated territory with 
fewer than 30,000 people living on the three islands. Government 
revenues totaled about $7.5 million a year.
  The Revised Organic Act which Congress crafted sought to conserve 
scarce funding and eliminate duplicative bureaucratic costs by 
centralizing the existing municipal governments on St. Croix, St. 
Thomas, and St. John into a single territory-wide entity.
  Today, the islands' population has grown fourfold and government 
revenues have risen to more than $400 million a year. But while the 
demand for services is ever-growing, the delivery of those services has 
often fallen behind. Many Virgin Islanders, especially on St. Croix, 
are convinced that because departments and agencies are centralized on 
St. Thomas, which is 40 miles away by sea, local government, by its 
design, cannot be responsive to their needs.
  Should the Virgin Islands Legislature determine that the best remedy 
would be to again decentralize and restore some degree of municipal 
government, there are concerns that such a change might not withstand a 
challenge in the courts unless Congress grants them the authority to do 
so.
  During my 20 years as a Member of the House and with your support, 
Mr. Speaker and that of our colleagues, I have devoted much of my 
career to increasing self-government in the Virgin Islands and our 
American territories.
  This great Nation has long recognized that its citizens, no matter 
where they reside under the American flag, should be allowed to 
determine the most effective and efficient form of government 
administration.
  The laws that govern us are only as good as their ability to respond 
to change. In my district, the U.S. Virgin Islands, change has been 
great and the need now to accommodate change is just as great.
  Therefore, in answer to a genuine need for structural reorganization, 
and in keeping with what is right and fair under our system of 
democratic government, I am introducing a bill that would amend the 
Revised Organic Act of 1954 to empower the Legislature of the Virgin 
Islands to create units of local self-government in the Virgin Islands.
  I look forward to your support and that of my colleagues for this 
important piece of legislation.

                          ____________________