Robert Underwood

President-elect Donald Trump will take the oath of office in January 2017. All of us under the American flag are commanded to be respectful and should give him the opportunity to offer policies and rate his performance only after he has actually performed. This doesn’t keep a lot of us from worrying about the implementation of policies on national security or levels of support for federal funding of programs. His first budget submission will give us a clue about his priorities and whether cuts will be coming.

He is probably not very familiar with U.S. territories although he said he would not “ignore the territories.” Every presidential candidate says something similar in the search for delegates.

There is the Republican Party Platform which local Republicans suggest might give territories a stronger voice in the executive branch under a Trump administration. The Platform passed in July 2016.

The Platform calls for the appointment of a territorial advisory committee to include five territories and assures us that this group will be integrated into the president’s transition team. Furthermore, they call for the appointment of a special assistant to the president responsible for day-to-day interaction with the territories and the Office of Insular Affairs. The Platform also calls for exemptions to federal laws such as the Jones Act and minimum wage, although I think the latter is specific to American Samoa. If an exemption to the Jones Act is coming, it should be in the next two years when the Republicans control the Presidency, the House and the Senate.

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But most of the Platform is about process, and it is a hopeful move. I hope that the transition territorial advisory committee will be selected soon so that we can advise them about federal policy which needs changing. I recommended earlier this year at a Department of Interior Political Status Conference that territorial governors present a plan to “end U.S. colonialism” to the Clinton or Trump transition team as a major policy initiative. Ending U.S. colonialism has to be a national effort led by a president if it is to succeed.

This step is designed to encourage the incoming president to develop an initiative on political status resolution at the beginning. In the administrations of the four previous presidents (George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama), there was no action on self-determination until the last year in office. In the last few months, those presidents issued reports or sponsored conferences. They used congressional plenary power over the territories as an excuse to do nothing or offer any initiative.

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Congress has plenary power, but Congress has responded to presidential initiatives when political status came up for islands. To wait until Congress comes up with an initiative based on territorial input is to invite failure and repeated delays. In the changing of political status for the Northern Marianas and Micronesian islands, it was a presidential initiative that led to congressional review and action. This time we can literally Trump Congress into action.

Congress has plenary power over most every bit of federal policy. Yet the president is expected to submit policy initiatives to guide the exercise of that power. This will take quick maneuvering. It is inevitable that somebody from Guam will have an appointment to be part of the Trump transition team. People are jockeying for that position right now. I hope we know who it is so that we can get our ideas to them for consideration by Trump. Please do your press release soon.

Robert Underwood is president of the University of Guam and Guam’s former delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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