[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 20]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 29057]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



             ENTERPRISE ZONE/EMPOWERMENT COMMITTEES PROGRAM

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. DONNA MC CHRISTENSEN

                         of the virgin islands

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, November 8, 1999

  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce a bill to 
authorize the Virgin Islands and the others U.S. Insular Areas to 
participate in the Enterprise Zone/Empowerment Communities Program.
  The U.S. Virgin Islands has been an unincorporated territory of the 
United States for 82 years. In 2017 we will celebrate the centennial of 
this relationship. It is important to the People of the Virgin Islands 
that we begin the second one-hundred years on a sound economic footing, 
and as a self-sustaining, contributing member of the American Family. 
This bill can be the vehicle to this economic empowerment and 
sustainable growth and development.
  Although the Virgin Islands enjoys generous business tax benefits 
currently, the loss of Section 936 and the coming of NAFTA create 
significant challenges as we strive to establish our place in the 
national and world economy. An empowerment zone would encourage an 
ongoing community planning process and provide for a local-federal 
partnership that is the best framework for us to move forward.
  What this bill seeks to do is to develop a process for us to come 
together as a community and a part of the United States to address a 
myriad of issues that have plagued us, from land use planning, to 
housing, to education, to drugs and crime, and business and the 
economy, so that by the time we celebrate the 100 year anniversary of 
being a part of the American family we will do so with the pride and 
dignity that befits us and the ancestors on whose shoulders we move 
forward.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this bill and of its 
enactment into law.

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