[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 80 (Thursday, May 11, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H2254-H2255]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            ADOPTING THE CONSTITUTION OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
the Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, this week I was pleased to introduce 
legislation to adopt the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands and 
its amendments as the constitution of the Virgin Islands of the United 
States.
  My legislation provides for the adoption of the Revised Organic Act, 
as it has been approved by Congress, signed into law, and amended, as 
the constitution of our territory.
  While the Revised Organic Act presently serves as the main governing 
document of the Virgin Islands, we have been unable to enact changes on 
a territorial level. If the Revised Organic Act and its amendments are 
adopted as the constitution by Federal law, it would then free the 
Virgin Islands to make further amendments without congressional 
engagement or approval.
  As such, my legislation includes an amendment process to allow the 
Virgin Islands to revise the constitution once adopted.
  In May of 2020, the Virgin Islands legislature passed bill 33-0292, 
which included a referendum on the general election ballot on calling a 
constitutional convention to adopt the Revised Organic Act. This 
proposal was approved by 72 percent of people voting on this measure.
  There is a clear public preference for the adoption of a constitution 
for the

[[Page H2255]]

Virgin Islands. My legislation enables a base constitution to be 
enacted and a local process for self-determination and a level of 
autonomy in our constitutional maturation.
  I am asking all Virgin Islanders to speak with individuals you know 
who can help support this act, and I am asking Members of our diaspora 
living in the mainland to lobby their current congressional and Senate 
Representatives for support.


 Preventing Further Growth of the Virgin Islands National Park on St. 
                                 John.

  Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, this week I introduced legislation to 
prohibit the net increase of federally owned land in the Virgin Islands 
National Park Service on St. John. The Virgin Islands National Park 
boundary encompasses nearly two-thirds of the island of St. John. 
Within the park boundary, there is both federally owned and privately 
owned land. There is a finite amount of land for the residents of St. 
John who are already confronting housing shortages. This legislation 
takes the necessary steps to prevent an increase in land owned by the 
park.
  This legislation prevents any net increase of federally owned land in 
the park. Individuals and entities would still be able to donate or 
exchange land with the park, but if the Virgin Islands National Park 
acquires any land, an equal acreage of land must be conveyed out of 
Federal ownership.
  The legislation includes stringent guidelines to ensure the park does 
not utilize bureaucratic processes to cause excessive delays. When the 
park elects to sell Federal land to avoid an increase in net acreage, 
it must offer the land for sale within a year at fair market value. Six 
months after the land is first offered for sale, if it is not under 
contract or sold, then the price is reduced by 10 percent each month.
  This legislation addresses the concerns I hear consistently from 
Virgin Islanders about an ever-expanding presence of the park on St. 
John. The park has a responsibility as stewards and also as partners of 
the Virgin Islands. That has not always been the case.
  Unfortunately, often the park seems to be solely engaged in 
protecting land, not the people who were the original inhabitants of 
that land or the people brought over as enslaved people who fought for 
freedom and through sweat and toil were able to obtain land on that 
island.
  Albeit sometimes well-intentioned, what they have done is effectively 
crowded out Native people in furtherance of neocolonial bourgeois 
wildlife ideals acting under the assumption that the local people--
interestingly, people of color--cannot care for the land themselves.
  As we look at the history and the future of the Virgin Islands 
National Park, our decisions must be intentional to support St. John 
and the entire Virgin Islands, which includes its land, its people, its 
history, its culture, and our future.
  Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with my colleagues to advance 
this legislation.

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