[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 145 (Friday, October 24, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H9547-H9549]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DETERMINING GUAM'S POLITICAL FUTURE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from Guam [Mr. Underwood] is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I take to the floor to talk a little bit
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about H.R. 100, which is the Commonwealth bill for Guam. This bill was
first introduced in 1989 and it has endured some 8 years of negotiation
with both the Bush and the Clinton Administration, and to date we have
not reached any consensus on this bill.
As a consequence of that, I had asked the gentleman from Alaska [Don
Young], Chairman of the Committee on Resources, to schedule a hearing
in order to perhaps facilitate more discussion on the bill and to get a
kind of check on the health of the bill, both from the perspective of
the administration and the Congress. The chairman of the Committee on
Resources has gratefully allowed us to have this hearing on October 29,
next Wednesday.
H.R. 100 has been a bill that we deliberately labeled it H.R. 100,
because next year, 1998, stands for the 100th anniversary in which the
island of Guam has been associated with the United States. Guam was
ceded to the United States by Spain as a result of the Spanish-American
War, and next year we commemorate or celebrate, or otherwise
acknowledge in one way or another the 100th anniversary of what most
historians call the splendid little war.
In that time period, Guam has really, its political status has only
been changed once. It was and still is an unincorporated territory, but
the process of changing perhaps the way in which Guam has been dealt
with occurred only once, and that was in 1950 with the passage of the
Guam Organic Act, making the indigenous people, the Chamorro people of
Guam, U.S. citizens.
Since that time, it certainly has been clear to the people of Guam
that we need to revisit our political status, and that we need to
revisit our relationship with the Federal Government.
Throughout the decades ever the 1980's, there were a series of
elections that took place on Guam with all eligible voters
participating on what political status Guam should pursue for the
immediate future. In 1982, this election was held and the two winners
were what was labeled Commonwealth and the aspiration for statehood,
and a runoff election was held between those two sometime later, two
years later, and the eventual winner of that, by a 3 to 1 margin, was
Commonwealth.
There ensued on Guam a series of discussions and public hearings in
which a Commonwealth proposal was fashioned, and this led to a 12-
titled piece of legislation, which was in itself voted on, article-by-
article, and which eventually surfaced as legislation ratified by the
voters of Guam, and legislation which was introduced in Congress in
1989.
At that time, the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs of the Committee on
Resources held a hearing on this Commonwealth proposal, and suggested
that there be a period of time in which negotiations and discussions
could be held between, at that time, the Bush administration, and the
Commission on Self-Determination, which is a body created by Guam
public law.
There ensued a period of discussions for 3 years, and at the
conclusion of the Bush administration, the Bush Administration
concluded that they could not agree to major parts of this Commonwealth
proposal and left it at that, with a negative report that was actually
issued 1 hour before the administrators at the Department of the
Interior physically left office, signalling the end of the Bush
administration.
As a consequence, we had very serious high hopes when the Clinton
administration came in, and for the past few years we have been in
discussion with the Clinton administration with a team led by John
Garamendi, the Honorable John Garamendi, the Deputy Secretary of the
Department of the Interior.
Throughout those discussions we have discovered, somewhat to our
dismay, that many of the people we were confronting in earlier times
under the Bush administration were essentially the same bureaucrats and
had the same bureaucratic perspectives of those under the succeeding
administration, and to date very little progress has been made.
What is Guam seeking in this legislation? Well, Guam is seeking in
this legislation a new relationship with the Federal Government. It
seeks a new relationship with the Federal Government through a joint
commission to review the application of laws and the application of
rules and regulations for the people of Guam. It seeks to resolve some
issues of historical injustice regarding Federal landholdings on Guam
and the right of the Chamorro people, the indigenous people of Guam, to
ultimately determine their political faith in the future.
Lastly, it offers some economic items that would lead to a greater
economic growth for Guam. That is the basis for this package that we
call the Guam Commonwealth proposal. At this point in time, I wish that
I could report that we had made great progress with the administration,
but we have not made that great progress. Yet, I remain the optimist
and hope that in the context of the hearing next week, we will have
people who will say there may be serious disagreements, but that there
will always be opportunities to further discuss this and that the
administration would not close the door to further discussion.
It is my hope as well that as the Committee on Resources, which is
the only committee in this body that is charged with the general
management and review of insular affairs, takes its responsibilities
seriously with regard to the territories. It is of note that the
Committee on Resources hearing room, the primary hearing room used by
the Committee on Resources, is the only committee room in Congress that
flies the flags of the insular areas behind the chairman's seat. So
this responsibility is entrusted to the Committee on Resources, and I
think the people of Guam are coming to the Committee on Resources with
a sense that these are people who understand their responsibility with
regard to the territories.
At one time or another, even though it may not be of abiding concern
to many Americans, because we are talking about fellow Americans who
are few in number and quite distant, the island I represent is some
9,000 miles from Washington, DC; is on the other side of the
international dateline; takes some 19 hours to get to by air; and has
only 150,000 people. It is very difficult to understand why this would
be an abiding concern to most Americans. Yet, these people are U.S.
citizens. We fight and we die in American wars.
Guam has the distinction of having the highest per capita casualty
rate and death rate from Vietnam. And nobody asked us whether we were
full citizens or second-class citizens as we sought to participate
fully in those challenges that are most presented by American
citizenship.
{time} 1445
At some point in time we are going to have to cross that bridge and
try to understand what is the meaning for U.S. citizenship and what
kinds of ways can we offer people who live in distant and small areas
in order to more effectively participate as American citizens in their
government.
We all take it as a core creed of America that the only legitimate
form of government is through the consent of the governed. That is not
true for all Americans, because it is certainly not true for the
insular areas. The insular areas do not have meaningful participation
in the development of the laws under which they must live, laws which
are passed in this body in which we have nonvoting representation by
delegates, laws which are passed in the other body in which there is no
representation, and laws which then become administrative rules created
by an administration which the people of the territories cannot vote
for. So in that sense there is no meaningful participation, and that
violates the very creed of America and the sense of American democracy.
So we need to be creative as we try to figure out what is the meaning
of American citizenship for the people of the insular areas, and
certainly I am making that pitch for the people of Guam.
The real test of our democratic creed is not to try to act when only
it is in our best interests, but to try to act and to understand the
necessity to act when there is no personal interest at stake, other
than the pure understanding of democratic principles.
So the people of Guam come to this hearing hoping for a fair hearing
and a fair opportunity for their proposal, and I am sure that most of
the members of the Committee on Resources will give them that
opportunity. I am sure that
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most of the people of this great country will understand that if they
had the opportunity to draw a little attention to it.
When we talk about extending the basic principles of democracy to
other parts of the world or shoring them up, and we are talking about
millions and millions of people, and we are talking about trade
interests and strategic interests and security interests, there is an
imperative in that beyond the desire for democracy, to make democracy
work in other parts of the world.
But when we are challenged simply by the existence of 150,000
citizens by people who live on what is a relatively small island some
9,000 miles away, really, when there is no abiding interest to address
those issues, we are really testing whether we do really care about
democracy, where we are willing to think outside the box, and try to
come up with and fashion an instrument which gives these people
meaningful participation in the Government which controls their lives.
The people of Guam will be represented by a large delegation: The
three living Governors, the current Governor, Carl Gutierrez, the
Honorable Paul Calvo, and the Honorable Joseph Ada, both of whom are
Republicans, Carl Gutierrez is a Democrat, this proposal is very
bipartisan on Guam and supported across the board by the elected
leadership; Senators Tony Blaz, who is the vice speaker of the Guam
Legislature, Senator Mark Forbes, the chairperson of the Federal
Relations Committee of the Guam Legislature, Senator Ben Pangelinan,
the minority leader, Senator Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson, chairperson of
the Committee on the Judiciary of the Guam Legislature; Chief Justice
Pete Siguenza; presiding judge, Alberto LaMorena; members of six groups
that are important in the context of Guam; and a very important
symbolic figure for most people on Guam, the Archbishop, Anthony
Apuron; leader of the Chamorro Nation, Ed Benavente; leader of the
Organization of People for Indigenous Rights, Hope Cristobal; chairman
of the Chamber of Commerce, Sonny Ada; president of the Guam Bar
Association, J. Arriola; and president of the Filipino Community of
Guam, Roger Ruelos have all received invitations, and we look forward
to their testimony.
We certainly look forward to welcoming them to Washington and hope
that they have a safe trip to this very distant city, when you look at
it from Guam's point of view; and hopefully we will give them a warm
welcome, and entertain warmly the proposal of a people who are striving
to create a mechanism to better participate in the fabric of American
democracy through a Commonwealth proposal.
It is a proposal whose time has come, it is a proposal that must be
addressed, and it is a proposal that deserves the serious attention of
the members of the Committee on Resources as well as all Members of the
House of Representatives and the American people at large.
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