Jon L. Christensen: “I rise in support of H.R. 2296, a bill I introduced earlier this year to give my constituents, the people of the U.S.…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 2296, a bill I introduced earlier this year to give my constituents, the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands, a greater degree of self-government by allowing us and not Congress, to determine the size of our local legislature. I must begin my remarks by also thanking the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), chairman of the Committee on Resources and the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), ranking member, for their support and hard work in getting this bill to the floor today. The gentleman from Alaska (Chairman Young), the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), Ranking Democrat, and I all recognize and acknowledge that H.R. 2296 is only necessary because the Virgin Islands have not yet adopted a local constitution after four attempts. Although I believe our adopting a constitution would be the preferred process, a constitution convention and adoption of a Virgin Islands constitution may still be a long way off. Therefore, H.R. 2296 was introduced on June 22 of last year in response to a resolution that was passed by the 22nd Legislature of the Virgin Islands to petition Congress to reduce the size of the local legislature from its current 15 members to 9 as a means of saving our cash-starved government badly needed funds.”