Leader, Overseer, Coach, Enabler?

Robert A. Underwood

Last September, an Investment Development Conference was sponsored by the Interior Department on behalf of the territories at a fancy Washington D.C. hotel. There were over 400 listed participants and it was touted as providing new economic opportunities for the insular areas. The Governors of the three Pacific territories and Virgin Islands (and many staffers) showed up to various parts of the event. The investors were supposed to travel to the territories along with Interior Secretary Gale Norton at some unspecified time in the future as the follow up to this economic development initiative.

Some of the Governors have since expressed some disappointment at the event. They point out that young business professionals invited by Interior treated the insular areas as a research project. The Wharton School graduates came to the event and told the experienced island officials what sectors of their economies they needed to grow. Some Interior staffers point out that the event could not succeed without strong Island government support and it just wasn't there.

This latest initiative raises the question of Interior's appropriate role in territorial policy. Is the Department of Interior an economic and social welfare agency that simultaneously assists and leads the islands to some unspecified level of self-sufficiency? If so, who decides the general direction and what is the process used to arrive at the goals and objectives of economic self-sufficiency? Or is the Department of Interior simply the federal government's coordinator of territorial affairs in all areas of policy-making? Is it the conduit through which territories advocate their interests and through which the federal government communicates its intent? Is it the leader, the overseer, the coach or the enabler?

Ideally, we could answer that the role of Interior is multifaceted and could accommodate all these descriptions. The reality is that the role only appears to be multifaceted because it is unclear. Sometimes, we use terms like "multi-tasking" and "multi-faceted" to describe aimless and disparate activities conducted under the same auspices.

Interior is supposed to be the lead agency when it comes to territorial policy. Insular governments think that means Interior leads the federal government in territorial issues. Some Interior officials think it means leading the territories toward federal policy objectives. In reality, successful territorial policy requires the setting of mutual policy goals which involves sustained consultation with insular Governors and Washington representatives.

More importantly, beyond the specific relationship between Interior and each island government, there is the relationship between the island governments and the entire federal government. How do island governments mediate issues with the Justice, Homeland Security, Defense, Labor or Education departments? How does a policy get discussed, implemented and interpreted in the same way? This is really the core of the relationship between Interior and island governments as seen by the islands. How do we get Interior to help us in our struggles with other federal agencies? Without political clout and with a federal bureaucracy that misunderstands or ignores territories, the territories need a new approach to the resolution of their issues.

This was the origin of the Interagency Group on Insular Areas (IGIA). It began after significant effort in 1999 as an executive memorandum by President Clinton. To Deputy Assistant Secretary David Cohen's credit, President Bush revived the group via an executive order in May 2003.

Perhaps Interior should stick to coordinating policy instead of assuming a stronger leadership role as the developer of island governments. Perhaps we should just think of Interior as our island bureau in the sea of federal bureaucracy in Washington, D.C. Events like the investors conference do not fit into this role, but it doesn't mean they shouldn't be attempted. I congratulate the energy and the effort behind the conference approach. It isn't every administration that develops a specific policy towards the territories. At least, the Bush Administration has made the effort. But without strong insular support, such initiatives only produce a few press releases and new reports about what should have been done.

The writer is Guam's former Delegate to the U.S. Congress.