Bill would require federal department to have advisors on territorial affairs

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., and representatives of several U.S. territories filed a bill Monday that would require federal departments to have advisors on territorial affairs.

If passed, the bill would create an office in each federal department “to oversee matters impacting the U.S. territories within their jurisdiction,” said Rep. Jenniffer González Colón, R-Puerto Rico.

Territories face challenges, including the lack of voting representation in Congress, she said, which “sometimes leads to unequal treatment.”

The territories have different needs, Grijalva said, “This legislation will help ensure that each executive department has the expertise it needs to understand those needs and make good on our responsibility to support economic and social development in the Insular Areas.”

Along with Grijalva, the bill is sponsored by González Colón, Rep. Gregorio Sablan, D-Northern Mariana Islands, Rep. Jim Moylan, R-Guam, and Rep. Stacey Plaskett, D-U.S. Virgin Islands. Grijalva is the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees territorial issues. 

“This timely legislation will provide an avenue for the special advisors to address major policy matters in a comprehensive fashion and provide better clarity of agency roles and responsibilities and improve policy implementation,” Plaskett said.

Sablan noted, “The unique circumstances of the Marianas and other Insular Areas are too easily overlooked when federal agencies set national policies. The Special Advisors for Insular Areas Act addresses that problem.”