Date: 1985-02-07
Speaker: DE LUGO (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. last night in this Chamber. the President gave his State of the Union Address. and we heard our President lay out his legislative agenda. an agenda that we know from his budget proposal will include deep cuts and even complete elimination of certain programs. Many in this House have already decried the severe cuts that will affect the poor and the middle classes. and which will eliminate whole programs that have had a proven track record of success in moving people from poverty to the mainstream of American life. Nowhere. Mr. Speaker. will those cuts be felt more deeply than in the territories of the United states. It has only been in the last three decades that the insular areas have been able to move from the indescribable poverty in which they barely subsisted. to the beginnings of participation in that mainstream. For decades prior to the recent past. these territories were ignored and neglected to the point that one American President. earlier this century. referred to one of them. my own district of the U.S. Virgin Islands. as "an effective poorhouse." That has been changing over the past three decades only because Congress came to recognize its plenary constitutional authority over the territories. and its inherent responsibilities to the territories under that authority. In measured steps and with deliberation. Congress has gradually extended political. social and economic rights and participatory powers to our territories. I ask. Mr. Speaker. that my colleagues understand just how recent these changes are. Until 1970. the American citizens of the U.S. Virgin Islands could not elect their own Governor. Puerto Rico had no constitution until 1954. neither Guam nor the U.S. Virgin Islands had representation in the Congress until 1973. and American Samoa. not until 1981. To this day. American citizens in all of the insular areas cannot vote for President of the United States. In encouraging political growth in the insular areas. Congress also recognized political advancement was a meaningless concept without economic improvement. By gradually increasing territorial participation in national programs. and by developing special trade and investment incentives for the offshore areas. Congress laid the groundwork for the emergence of a middle class. which is the bulwark of our American way of life. The change has been dramatic. In these past three decades the offshore areas of our country have gone from being twoclass colonies. whose very existence was a potential embarrassment to the United States. to laboratories of healthy. nonviolent revolutionsliving proof of how effective national policy can be in bringing about positive political. social and economic change. However. what the President last night referred to as "the second American Revolution" could end that healthy revolution now occurring in the territories of the United States. and will end it. unfortunately. just when the desired goals are in sight. Not only will the large numbers of poor in the territories be severely hurt by the proposed budget. but movement to the middle class will cease. and the tenuous gains of the new middle class. so crucial to continued stability in the territories. will be dangerously eroded. The proposed cuts will hurt the territories in the most potentially damaging areas: education. which is the only salvation of our young people who make up an inordinate percentage of our populations. small business development. which is the only way to ensure that indigenous territorial residents have a piece of the pie. infrastructure assistance. without which we cannot compete for industry. In addition to these proposed cuts and program eliminations. the territories are faced with. and have been faced with unilateral Federal actions affecting our trade and industrial incentive tax programs. These actions are pulling the pegs out from under these territories economically. pegs that Congress created as the basis of territorial economic policy. No State in the Union is faced with this triple assault. Mr. Speaker. during the consideration of the Presidents budget. I will be asking my colleagues here in the House to look at the impact on the U.S. territories and to understand fully that the policies set by Congress over the past three decades is at stake. as well as Congresss power to set that policy.