Derogatory Rohrabacher Remarks Anger Guam, Other U.S. Territories

WASHINGTON — Orange County Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has created a tempest in Guam and other U.S. territories for suggesting that they are “economic basket cases . . . backward and economically depressed” and those with delegates in Congress have not been well represented.

The comments, reported recently in the Pacific Daily News while Rohrabacher was visiting the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Island at that government’s invitation, were viewed as an insult by some of the representatives from the region.

“Your statements regarding Guam’s economy indicate that you have not carefully investigated this issue,” Rep. Robert A. Underwood (D-Guam) stated in a letter to the Republican congressman from Huntington Beach.

Underwood has sponsored legislation seeking non-voting delegate status in Congress for the Northern Mariana Islands, which are the only U.S. territories without representation in Washington. Other U.S. territories such as Guam, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia have delegates who are not allowed to vote on the House floor.

Donna Christian-Green, the Virgin Islands’ congressional delegate, called Rohrabacher’s comments “unfounded.”

And in an “open letter” to the citizens of Guam, Gov. Carl Gutierrez said Rohrabacher’s comments were based on “ignorance and insensitivity.”

Rohrabacher, a member of the House Asia and the Pacific subcommittee, refused to comment.

But his public statements during a five-day trip to the Northern Mariana Islands--paid for by the commonwealth--thrust him knee-deep into a local controversy over whether the Northern Marianas should have representation in Washington, under what terms the representation should exist, and the value of the work now being performed by delegates from other U.S. territories.

The newspaper quoted Rohrabacher as stating that the congressional representatives of the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia had not helped improve their local economies.

“I look at it as more of an ego thing for people than it is a . . . benefit,” Rohrabacher said, according to the Pacific Daily News report.

Underwood replied in an interview: “Considering all the egos that are bouncing around on the [House] floor continually, I think people who talk about other people’s egos make their own egos suspect.”

Rohrabacher, along with Reps. Brian P. Bilbray (R-San Diego) and Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-Tenn.), made the excursion to the South Seas over the New Year’s holiday at the invitation of Commonwealth Gov. Froilan C. Tenorio. The governor recently broke ranks with other local politicians and now opposes sending a delegate to Washington.

Local news reports portrayed the congressional visit as an open discussion over whether the Northern Mariana Islands should get representation since they do not pay the federal income tax, whether the territories should foot the bill to have a seat in Congress, or whether one delegate should be elected for all the territories.

Rohrabacher was quoted as agreeing with the local governor, but adding that the ultimate decision over whether to have a delegate in Congress should rest with the citizens there.

The Guam congressman said that “democratic representation is supposed to be extended to U.S. citizens by virtue of their citizenship, not by virtue of their contribution to the [U.S.] Treasury.”

John Babauta, the resident representative for the commonwealth in Washington, said he hoped Rohrabacher would meet with him, because Tenorio’s opposition to a delegate in Washington conflicts with two decades of support by local officials for a seat in Congress.

“There are U.S. citizens out there that have no representation in their national government,” Babauta said. “I don’t think it’s right for this Congress or any Congress to pass laws that affect citizens without representation.”

In his public statement, Guam’s governor said: “We can forgive Rep. Rohrabacher [for] his ignorance of our economic success . . . but it is this ignorance and lack of sensitivity which run counter to our country’s democratic tradition and which ensures the continuation of our status as second-class citizens in the American family.”

The governor added that Rohrabacher and his colleagues should “make sure they are fully informed before they speak and act on issues which have an enormous effect on the people of Guam.”