There was a great deal of excitement generated by Del. Stacey Plaskett’s stirring challenge to the House of Representatives on the first day of session on Jan. 3.
While most observers in Washington were focused on whether Speaker Mike Johnson would be reelected speaker, Plaskett, a delegate of the U.S. Virgin Islands, stood up to challenge the proceedings by asking why the territorial delegates were excluded from the rollcall of votes for Johnson.
Of course, she knew the answer as most of us did, but she wanted the audience for a brief moment to consider the status of individuals who represent the territories of the United States.
The easy answer is that it is unconstitutional. Like most of us, I couldn’t hear the chatter on the floor, but I could imagine that some inappropriate invectives and “sit down!” were shouted. This challenge was similarly raised by Puerto Rican Resident Commissioner Carlos Romero Barcelo in 1999.
Plaskett caused excitement in the territories as many felt emboldened to raise the issue of democratic representation and bemoan the unfairness of our citizenship status. Of course, it is disingenuous for the heart of American democracy, known as the House of Representatives, to not actually represent all the people who are citizens. Unlike the Senate, which represents states, the House is supposed to represent the people. The presider read the script provided by the parliamentarian about eligibility to vote for speaker. The efforts in both 1999 and 2025 yielded the same response.
There are places in the House of Representatives where these issues are supposed to be discussed. In Longworth 1324, the Natural Resources Committee conducts business related to the territories. It is the only place in the U.S. capitol complex that displays the flags of the five U.S. unincorporated territories, two of which are labeled “commonwealths.”
Some commonwealth believers think that they are not unincorporated territories. However, the flags of Puerto Rico and the Northern Marianas are arrayed equally with Guam, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands, positioned behind the chair. For a time, they included the freely associated states. As “sovereign states,” jurisdiction over them falls under Foreign Affairs, although funding primarily comes through the Department of the Interior. DOI gets called to explain themselves at Longworth 1324.
I was proud to sit in that Committee Room for a decade to state my concerns about Guam’s political status. The only time a Guam commonwealth bill was heard in Washington D.C. was in that room. Bills about excess lands, funding arrangements and amendments to the Organic Act were all processed through that committee. It is where insular bills go and are amended before being referred to the House floor.
All territorial delegates were previously expected to sit in the House Natural Resources Committee to introduce legislation, argue for it and monitor the activities of this vital body that oversees the overseas colonies. In the 119th Congress, only two persons from the offshore areas were on that committee: Del. Amata Radewagen (R-American Samoa) and Resident Commissioner Pablo Hernandez Rivera (D-Puerto Rico).
Guam Del. Jim Moylan was on the House Natural Resources Committee in his previous term but has moved on the Foreign Affairs Committee while remaining on the Armed Services Committee. The CNMI’s new delegate, Kimberlyn King-Hinds, is on the Transportation, Infrastructure and Veteran’s Affairs committee. Both are seeking assignments to a third committee and are likely to secure them, but neither is pursuing Natural Resources.
Perhaps ironically, Plaskett has not been on the Natural Resources Committee. She is on Ways and Means, an “exclusive” committee, which limits its members to only one committee assignment due to its status. She was also on the Select Intelligence Committee and given some prominence as part of the legal team that prosecuted Donald Trump’s impeachment.
Former Guam delegate Michael San Nicolas was not on Natural Resources as an original member because he also served on Financial Services, another “exclusive” committee.
Territorial and colonial policies are not served well if the colonial representatives themselves are not interested in the formation of insular policy. Of course, if your representation is not about managing the political status or changing the relationship of your home islands, then Longworth 1324 doesn’t matter.
If you just want to “bring home the bacon” and not think of broader issues, then any old bacon will do. Just start defining what that “bacon” is and pray that the folks at home cook it thoroughly. At the committee level, delegate votes carry weight. They are not merely symbolic, as they are in the Committee of the Whole on the floor. Territories could have five votes in that committee, but now only have two.
Perhaps the number of flags in Longworth will increase in the Trump administration. He wants to take back the Panama Canal and acquire Greenland. In this new imperial presidency of the 21st century, we may see the Panama Canal Zone and Greenland flags displayed in Longworth 1324. I am relatively sure that they would be unincorporated territories.
I guess the Department of the Interior will have new coordinating responsibilities. Trump is a dealmaker, and he may decide that a deal is in order. A good friend suggested to me that a “G for G” trade may be in order, where Greenland comes under the U.S. and Guam goes to Denmark. We might end up learning Danish, as well as eating it.
Plaskett gave herself and the rest of us in the territories a brief moment of attention. I congratulate her and I hope that she uses her legal background to reshape some of the thinking about constitutional limits. But that moment is now gone. It is left to legislation and discussions in Longworth 1324 to attend to the issues of who we are and who we aren’t as American citizens in the territories. For now, we will have to rely on Radewagen and Hernandez-Rivera.
Radewagen is entering her sixth term on the Natural Resources Committee and serves as vice chair of the Indians and Islands Affairs Subcommittee. The chair of that subcommittee is Colorado’s Jeff Hurd, a freshman member. Maybe seniority doesn’t count as much as it used to.
Dr. Robert Underwood is the former president of the University of Guam and former member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Send feedback to anacletus2010@gmail.com.
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