This week at the White House, Acting Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt and White House Deputy Assistant to the President & Director, White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Douglas Hoelscher co-hosted territorial governors and members of Congress for the 2019 Senior Plenary Session of the Interagency Group on Insular Areas (IGIA).
“The IGIA remains an essential platform to amplify territorial issues and concerns by communicating them directly to the White House and Federal agencies,” said Acting Secretary Bernhardt, “we appreciated the candid comments by everyone.”
Senior federal officials at the IGIA heard from the governors and delegates on a wide range of issues, such as:
• access to foreign workers;
• the ongoing unmet federal mandates;
• the need for assistance and alternative ways to administer disaster funding;
• the higher cost of rebuilding in the territories following natural disasters;
• the need to expand fishing rights in exclusive economic zone waters; and
• the disparate treatment of territories compared to States in areas such as Medicaid and the federal medical assistance percentage.
U.S. Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett highlighted several areas for potential increased collaboration and exploration with federal partners in fields such as energy, agriculture, technology, resilience to the changing climate, and transshipment. Territorial leadership all agreed that President Trump and his administration have been very responsive with respect to natural disasters such as Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the Caribbean and Typhoons Mangkhut and Yutu in the Pacific.
Doug Domenech, Interior’s Assistant Secretary, Insular and International Affairs said, “My staff and I are looking at the various issues raised by the Governors to assess where we can make administrative fixes,” said D“We will be looking to collaborate closely with our federal partners, and the Congress, in these efforts.”
