[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 71 (Wednesday, May 2, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E926-E927]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF BILL TO CREATE THE OFFICE OF CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER 
                         FOR THE VIRGIN ISLANDS

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. DONNA M. CHRISTENSEN

                         of the virgin islands

                    in the house of representatives

                         Wednesday, May 2, 2007

  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, today I am once again introducing 
legislation that I sponsored in the previous two Congresses to provide 
for a Chief Financial Officer for the Virgin Islands. Having witnessed 
the example and record of what having such a position has meant to the 
financial management and fiscal health of the District of Columbia, I 
continue to believe that my district, the U.S. Virgin Islands, would 
also benefit from having a CFO.
  When I first introduced the idea of a CFO for the Virgin Islands in 
2005, I did so in response to the uncertainties and distrust of 
government voiced by my constituents and as a measure to prevent the 
territory, which was experiencing a serious financial crisis, from 
falling into the abyss of fiscal insolvency.
  I believed then, as I do now, that having someone in our government 
free of political pressures and with the statutory responsibility and 
authority to certify revenue projections and prevent deficit spending 
could assist our government to establish sound financial practices 
which would put the Islands on the path to improved financial 
management going forward. Because of our long history of poor financial 
management and practices, an office such as this would also help to 
immediately restore the confidence of the Federal Government and others 
in our ability to be fiscally transparent and accountable.
  There are those, Madam Speaker, who will ask why I am doing this at 
this time, particularly because the islands just inaugurated a new 
governor whose background is in financial management and who has been a 
good friend and political ally.
  They will suggest that my introduction of this bill signals a lack of 
confidence in the governor to effectively steer the Virgin Islands' 
fiscal ship into calm financial waters. Nothing could be further from 
the truth. I have every confidence in Governor John de Jongh and his 
administration and believe that they will do a first rate job of 
managing the territory's finances. He has already begun to do so, but I 
also believe that every good manager, no matter how talented or 
committed he or she might be, can always do a better job if they had 
better tools with which to work.

  When I first introduced this bill the territory's long-term debt 
totaled $1 billion. Recently the Governor in an address before the 
League of Women Voters stated that ``the government's financial 
structure is ``a house of cards'' that has left the territory about $3 
billion in debt.''
  As has frequently been the case, the legislature questioned the 
governor's numbers. A CFO would take the uncertainty out of the 
equation and allow a legislature and governor to work better together 
because they would both get their numbers from the same independent 
source. Further, the departments of government, semi-autonomous 
agencies and labor unions would be better able to plan, and the people 
of the Virgin Islands in general would have reliable information on how 
the

[[Page E927]]

millions of federal dollars coming to the Virgin Islands are being 
spent.
  This bill was first introduced under the administration of Governor 
Turnbull and it is revised with respect to the financial management 
system because, to his credit, its implementation began under his 
tenure.
  In recognition of and deference to the upcoming constitution to be 
drafted, approved by the Congress and then ratified by the people of 
the Virgin Islands, the prior bill is further amended in that the term 
of the Chief Financial Officer will expire at the implementation of the 
Constitution or in five years, whichever comes sooner.
  Proposing this bill as a tool to help my islands better manage its 
finances has not been an easy journey for me. It has however, become 
very clear that the people of the Virgin Islands are behind me in this 
effort because they have long recognized the need for more 
accountability, transparency, and efficiency in the management of 
federal and local funds. The implementation of an independent CFO, 
while not the only way to achieve this, is the only viable proposal 
that has come forward over the last 10 years or more of increasing 
deficits and narrowly averted fiscal crises, crises which have only 
been delayed through repeated borrowing.
  Such borrowing and debt creation is what has led to the $3 billion 
debt reported by Governor Dejongh last month--a practice he has already 
stated he will not continue. This office is offered as a way to assist 
our governor in his stated goal of paying our obligations and bringing 
the territory's finances into balance, to give apolitical, reliable and 
trusted information on the financial state of our government, as well 
as a way to bridge any divisions between the administration and the 
legislature in the interests of expediting a positive and sustainable 
agenda for the people of the Virgin Islands.
  I thank the Speaker for her support of this important legislation in 
prior Congresses and ask for her continued support to bring this 
legislation to passage once again.

                          ____________________