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A Place in the US With No Covid-19? Look to American Samoa.

The New York Times has covered one of the surprising tales of the COVID-19 pandemic: the fact that the only United States jurisdiction to remain free of cases is American Samoa. Through a look at the history of the island territory, its neighboring state of Samoa, and the actions of local officials the paper of record explains how the situation is possible.

Other U.S. islands lost their early battles to keep the infection out. But American Samoa’s success so far has been no accident, public health officials say. The territory moved swiftly to halt nearly all incoming flights, rapidly boosted testing ability and took advantage of social distancing strategies that had already been adopted in response to a measles outbreak at the end of last year.

The enduring trauma of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which left American Samoa relatively unscathed but wiped out a fifth of the population of neighboring independent Samoa, has also influenced aggressive anti-contagion moves at each stage of the crisis.

“Life in our bubble is somewhat unique compared to the rest of the world,” said Bishop Peter Brown, leader of the Roman Catholic church in American Samoa. Church services were quickly shut down when the coronavirus began its spread across the United States, he said.

Schools had been preparing to emerge from a measles closure in effect from December through early March when a “continuing” public health emergency was declared, effective on March 23.

What this article fails to mention is that among any state or territory American Samoa is unique in that it is the only allowed to control its immigration. Governor Lolo M. Moliga (D) swiftly moved to suspend all flights to the islands, something no other governor can do, even as some, like the Governor of Puerto Rico asked to do so.

All in all, the apparent success of American Samoa is likely due to several factors, but this might be one of very few instances in which being a territory (with rather unique powers) instead of a state might have yielded a benefit; a relevant consideration given recent discussions about the political status of the islands, and their inhabitants.

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The incomplete coronavirus map — US territories left behind

Equally American board member Gretchen Sierra-Zorita writes for The Hill about the exclusion of the US territories from major publications’ reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic. She argues the exclusion is often intentional, meant to hide the colonialist nature of the United States.

A review of several popular news outlets shows that while they’ve kept up with the spread of the coronavirus in most of the country, they have failed to report on the five U.S. territories. This exclusion is not trivial. If you think it is, imagine how you would feel if you looked at a map and your state was missing.

Maps are a symbolic representation of our world. They influence our collective perception of reality by what they include and exclude. If a United States map were presented omitting nearly 4 million American citizens — a population almost equal to that found in the five least populated states combined — South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont and Wyoming — it would send a message that they are not a priority in the nation’s war against COVID-19.

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This foreignness has deprived the American citizens from U.S. territories of their political and economic rights for over a century. The residents of U.S. territories cannot vote for president or Congressional representatives. They are not included in federal data collection programs that facilitate research, analysis and planning, inform decision-makers, all of which ultimately impact the distribution of resources.

In fact, the U.S. territories are so outside “the map” that last week a Chinese satellite launching rocket exploded over the Guamanian night skies and nobody in major national news reported it. Would the press remain silent if debris from a Chinese rocket fell over Hawaii? Probably not.

This invisibility combined with public health vulnerabilities has made the residents of the territories justifiably anxious over their ability to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. Unequal treatment in federal programs like Medicaid has left these remote islands with fragile health care systems. Underfunded and weakened by natural disasters — hurricanes Irma and Maria, typhoons Mangkhut and Yutu and the Puerto Rico earthquakes — the U.S. territories could be quickly overpowered by the coronavirus.

To Sierra-Zorita’s point, the exclusion of the territories from the reporting of most major outlets prompted us to launch our own dashboard specifically for the territories. Even as some outlets have corrected their maps to include the territories, the larger issue of ignoring these jurisdictions still stands, as exemplified by the lack of reporting on national outlets about the Chinese satellite explosion near Guam.

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Based on a 200-year-old treaty, the Cherokee Nation based in Oklahoma, through its new Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr. plans to appoint a delegate to the United States House of Representatives. The right to appoint a delegate was also reaffirmed by a subsequent treaty to the Treaty of New Echota of 1835, and by the Cherokee Nation’s Constitution. While the legal right for said delegate has spanned centuries, it has never been exercised, and as such it is unclear as to how Congress might accommodate the position. That said some expect the position to be treated like the delegates from the US territories:

It’s not clear what steps Congress might take to accommodate a CN delegate, but it’s likely they would be a non-voting member, similar to those from American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington D.C., said Ezra Rosser, an expert in tribal law and a professor at American University’s College of Law.

The tribe’s attempt could also face a legal challenge and end up in court, Rosser added.

“I’m excited they’re trying it,” said Rosser, who wrote a legal paper on the issue in 2005. “Even if it doesn’t go anywhere, non-Indians should be forced to face up to what we did and I think this is a tool that could be used to challenge not only our understanding of democracy, but also our understanding of history. So I think it’s great.”

However, according to an article by The Oklahoman, U.S. Rep. Tom Cole predicted that it will take a long time to resolve the Cherokee Nation’s claim that it has a treaty right to a delegate to Congress. Cole said the full House would likely have to approve any such change to its membership.

That said, as the Cherokee Phoenix indicates above, this issue is far from settled and will likely face legal and political challenges.

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As Puerto Rico slowly recovers from the effects of Hurricane Maria, scientists have been able to use its case as a rare chance to see firsthand what the future might have in store with climate change altering weather patterns, as Science magazine explains:

A major focus is this rainforest in the Luquillo Mountains of northeastern Puerto Rico that scientists have been monitoring since the 1940s. The only tropical forest in the U.S. Forest Service’s (USFS’s) National Forest System, it has endured several major hurricanes. But Maria and Irma—a hurricane that struck the island a glancing blow just 2 weeks earlier—were the strongest in a century, turning lush forest into ranks of skeletal trees and piles of sticks. Maria also destroyed research infrastructure and blocked access to some experiments for weeks.

As scientists get back to work, the devastated forest presents a rare opportunity to explore how tropical forests—and their ability to store carbon—recover from the extreme weather that is becoming more common as the world warms. The wealth of ongoing research in the forest “has positioned us really well to tackle this question of how tropical forests are going to respond,” says Grizelle Gonzalez, an ecologist at the International Institute of Tropical Forestry, run by USFS in San Juan. Tana Wood, a biogeochemist and ecologist at the institute, says she was trapped in her house for 2 days after Maria, and her research site was hit hard. “But scientifically, it’s incredibly exciting,” she says. “It’s a unique chance to look ahead.”

Already the researchers have seen hints that as temperatures warm, forests may be slower to recover from damage. Other findings, from a long-term effort here to simulate hurricane damage, suggest more frequent major disturbances could also make forest ecosystems less resilient, in part by causing the downed trees and branches to release their carbon into the air rather than the soil. That could fuel further climate change and extreme weather.

Stepping into El Yunque used to offer relief from the ferocious sun. But now, Wood shades her eyes from the glare as she surveys new understory vegetation. Hurricane Maria destroyed the canopy that once blanketed the forest in cool darkness and shielded the experiment that Wood began in 2016, a year before the storms. Her project, the Tropical Responses to Altered Climate Experiment (TRACE), tracks how increasing temperatures affect wet tropical forests. Because the world doesn’t warm much during the time scale of a research project, TRACE features an infrared heating system that warms understory plants and soils by 4°C, fast-forwarding climate change.

With any luck, the findings from studies like these will inform future policy decisions at the local and federal levels.

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The United States territory of Guam is defending a law that limits voting on the territory’s political relationship with the US to native inhabitants and their descendants. Arnold Davis, now represented by the Election Law Center and the Center for Individual Rights, filed a lawsuit, “arguing that the plebiscite election discriminated against him and other non-native inhabitants residing on the island who were ineligible to participate.”

The Guam Legislature created the Political Status Plebiscite as a mechanism for returning to the native inhabitants the ability to determine the future political status of the unincorporated U.S. territory located in the Mariana Islands.

Once 70 percent of native inhabitants signed onto the registry, a plebiscite political status election would be held to decide whether Guam should become a free association of the U.S., a state, or an independent nation.

While the indigenous people of Guam are known as Chamorro, Guam law defined the eligible plebiscite electorate as “native inhabitants” who were made U.S. citizens by the 1950 Organic Act and their descendants.

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Guam District Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood ruled in favor of Davis in March 2017, writing in her 26-page opinion, “the court recognizes the long history of colonization of this island and its people, and the desire of those colonized to have their right to self-determination. However, the court must also recognize the right of others who have made Guam their home.”

Guam Special Assistant Attorney General Julian Aguon countered Wednesday, “it would be impossible for a colonized people under U.S. rule to exercise any measure of self-determination because the mere act of designating them, designating who constitutes as a colonized class would collapse automatically into a racial categorization.”

“The purpose of the law is to identify the group entitled to decolonization rights,” Aguon implored in a speech so impassioned it drew commentary from the panel.

The case could have potential repercussion on the other territories, in particular American Samoa, which has a strong interest in preserving laws that give native inhabitants certain rights.

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The United States territory of Northern Mariana Islands has become the first of the territories to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes. The move is notable because as Vox notes, it’s the first US jurisdiction to do so through its legislature, and the first to do with a Republican government. In addition, as State of the Territory indicated, it is “first US jurisdiction to legalize cannabis for recreational use without implementing a medical marijuana program first.”

Governor Ralph Torres of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands on Friday signed HB 20-178 to legalize marijuana.

In particular, the bill allows a person who is 21 or older to “possess and transport up to one ounce of marijuana, 16 ounces of marijuana products in solid form, 72 ounces of cannabis in liquid form, five grams of extracts, and six immature plants.” In addition, the bill “[c]reates a Homegrown Marijuana Registry for adults and patients. Registered individuals may cultivate and process marijuana products at home after paying a $5 annual fee.”

In a signing statement [text], Torres expressed public health concerns and suggested he is expecting an additional bill. “We will ensure that this industry will be properly regulated and enforced. We want to do this the right way, and I also expect the Legislature to send me a companion bill that outlines my recommendations to strengthen this bill for our community’s public safety and public health.”

The passage comes after noted hesitation, and for now, it is unlikely the other territories will follow suit.

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In one of the examples where the United States territory of Puerto Rico is actually ahead, instead of lagging behind the states, we know have the wage gap, as in Puerto Rico is the only US jurisdiction where women earn more than men. CNN covered a recent study from the University of Puerto Rico which details the findings:

According to the US Census Bureau, the median salary for women in Puerto Rico was $24,486 in 2016, the most recent year for which such data is available. The median salary for men was $23,711. This amounts to about a 3% difference in pay.

The slight gap isn’t a new thing, either. Data from the 2008 Puerto Rico Community survey shows women there back then made an average of 1% more than men.

For comparison American women, when taken as a whole, made an average of 76% of what men made in 2016, according to census data. So what’s responsible for the small, yet statistically significant difference? A study conducted by researchers at the University of Puerto Rico found that Puerto Rican women are, on average, more educated than men (11.9 years of education vs. 11.2 years for men).

That said, there’s still much progress to make: Puerto Rico’s median salary is less than half of that of the poorest US state, Mississippi.

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As months add up and many in Puerto Rico still do not have access to reliable electric service, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority is drawing greater scrutiny from federal officials.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has been supporting Puerto Rico throughout the recovery attempts, joined Senators Bernie Sanders, Richard Blumenthal, Edward Markey, and Catherine Cortez Masto in a letter to FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers, asking for a “update on federal efforts to restore the electric grid in Puerto Rico.”

The letter acknowledges the work being done by the two organizations, listing the 1,300,000 PREPA customers already receiving service, the focus on rebuilding the Island’s power distribution networks, and the temporary generators being built. The authors go on to point out that rural areas are still without power, with serious consequences to health and well-being, and that urban areas have also complained about the slow response and the areas still without power. Half the intersections in Puerto Rico, for example, still do not have traffic lights. Only 71% of PREPA’s power transmission stations are operational. And the people working on the problem are beginning to leave Puerto Rico.

FEMA and the US Army Corps of Engineers are also being closely looked at, for their role in recovery efforts, especially as they wind down operations despite the prevailing need.

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State of the Territory has looked at the agency websites of the United States Virgin Islands, and has found a troubling pattern: more than two-thirds are vulnerable to web attacks, even those that handle sensitive information from the public.

A thorough analysis by State of the Territory revealed that 72 percent of government agencies in the U.S. Virgin Islands are vulnerable to hackers and other malicious attempts on the web.

Overlooked security protocols by the government can potentially expose thousands of residents and visitors to identity theft, credit card fraud and other malicious online attacks if exploited.

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Despite failing to convince Congress to exempt from the effects of the tax reform bill, Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon sees some good signs:

The landmark federal tax reform proposal released on Friday includes a provision to encourage economic growth in Puerto Rico and other economically distressed areas that was requested by Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón and several other members of Congress in a letter to congressional tax leaders.

The tax bill omits several of the group’s other requests.  When asked about the omissions during a Friday night press conference, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the Chairman of the congressional conference committee that released the tax bill, explained that more assistance for Puerto Rico would be forthcoming in separate legislation expected to pass by the end of the week.

The December 12 letter, which was led by Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón (R-PR) and signed by Representatives Jose Serrano (D-NY), Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Darren Soto (D-FL) and Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), urged the tax leaders “to take action on several provisions that will incentivize direct economic activity in the local economy of Puerto Rico, rather than simply allowing corporations to attribute income there for tax purposes.”

The letter further explained that “[a]ttributing income to an area for tax purposes has for too long enabled companies to save far more in taxes than they contribute to the local economy.”

Recognizing that the “economic situation in the island…leads Puerto Ricans to look for better opportunities in the 50 states,” the letter’s signers – who are from Puerto Rico and/or have significant Puerto Rican constituencies – concluded that “[t]he simplest, and best, solution would be to treat corporations in Puerto Rico as domestic for tax purposes.”  They further emphasized that “the conference should work towards that goal.”  Corporations in Puerto Rico are not treated as domestic in the tax proposal released on Friday.

Whether forthcoming legislation actually comes to fruition is yet to be seen.

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War is Boring takes a look at Puerto Rico’s history with this account of the 1950s bombing of a pro-independence uprising:

In November 2017, more than a month after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, territory residents continue to die due to lack of access to electricity and running water.

The troubled recovery effort highlights questions over U.S. sovereignty over the island. Puerto Ricans are American citizens, and indeed a majority of Puerto Ricans — five million — live on the U.S. mainland.

However, the 3.4 million residing on the archipelago cannot vote for president, do not pay federal taxes are required by law to import all goods from the United States at high prices and do not have any voting representation in Congress.

The population of Puerto Rico exceeds those of North and South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming and Alaska combined. Those states together have 10 senators and five voting representatives in Congress. Puerto Rico has none.

However, for years Puerto Ricans voted in referendums to maintain the island’s ambiguous status as a commonwealth, or “free associated state”. A nosediving economy caused both by failures in local governance and policy changes in Washington have caused support for statehood to rise in recent years.

But more than a half-century ago, local nationalists staged a dramatic but little-known revolt seeking just opposite — full independence from the United States.

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The Puerto Rico Report covers the efforts by Representatives Nydia Velazquez (D) of New York and Adam Smith (D) of Washington to demand a better response from the federal government to the crisis in the Caribbean.

House Armed Services Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA) and Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) led 145 Members of Congress in writing a letter to President Trump demanding that the Department of Defense deploy additional resources to aid recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Lawmakers are calling for the appointment of a senior general to oversee all recovery efforts, the deployment of life-saving military capabilities that would otherwise be unavailable to the relief effort, deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln, and an increase in personnel to assist local law enforcement.

The Democrats called for the appointment of a senior general to oversee all recovery efforts, the deployment of life-saving military capabilities that would otherwise be unavailable to the relief effort, deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln, and an increase in personnel to assist local law enforcement.

“President Trump’s effort to aid Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands has been wholly inadequate to date,” said Smith. “When a hurricane hits in the continental United States, you can send massive aid via roads, the National Guard can arrive from neighboring states, and people can leave the affected area. None of that is true here. There is no National Guard Navy, and more than 3.5 million American citizens are isolated and unable to access the most basic supplies. The U.S. military has unique capabilities that can help alleviate this situation, and the President must exercise the proper leadership to make that happen.”

So far the White House has approved a 10 day waiver of the Jones Act, and reduced the cost sharing requirement for emergency funds, facilitating some recovery efforts. However the President is convinced the federal government’s actions are doing well, so it is unknown if there will be any additional resources allocated.

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Following Hurricane Maria’s path through Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, several Washington officials made their concern known:

With the imminent repercussions that hurricane Maria poses, the federal government is already showing great support to the island. The President tweeted last night the following: “Puerto Rico being hit hard by new monster Hurricane. Be careful, our hearts are with you-will be there to help!”

In addition to the President showing support, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) gave the following statement last night in the Senate floor:

“Let me close by asking all of you to take a moment tonight, if you can and you wish, to pray for the island of Puerto Rico, a U.S. Territory, where millions of our fellow Americans are staring down the barrel of the most powerful storm that ever has perhaps hit that island, and this after already getting hit by Irma just a week ago. It has the potential to be an extraordinary catastrophe. We pray that is not the case. I hope we stand ready to assist our fellow Americans on the island of Puerto Rico. Let’s pray for them tonight because tomorrow morning is going to be a very difficult time for them as this extraordinary hurricane, Hurricane Maria, is about to slam right into them”

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) also gave this statement last night in the Senate floor:

“Let me first of all say how deeply we feel about folks who have been affected by these mammoth storms in the gulf coast, in Florida, and in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, as well as others elsewhere. Our hearts and prayers are with them.”

Now if that could be backed up with immediate action in Congress that would be great.

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Espacios Abiertos (Open Spaces) is a nonprofit organization looking to help people and groups act more effectively in political, social and institutional circles. They have worked on covering the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico, and have come out with this detailed report on the transparency issues concerning the members of the board. Namely, certain members are failing to file reports that could detail potential conflicts of interests. The article is in Spanish, but it provides clear graphics outlining who has filed reports, and includes a comprehensive timeline of groups seeking to uphold the transparency requirements.

The Oversight Board is not complying with PROMESA. Section 109 of the law is very specific on the ethics subject, conflicts of interest and the disclosure of financial interests. This disposition of the law applies to all memebrs of the board and all of its employees.

Not all members have fully complied with the disclosure of information required by the forms, and worse still, even in the case of the filed reports, the information provided is not enough to know if there is a conflict of interest, and whether any member or employees is unduly benefitting from their position.

Initial Report August 30, 2017

Through the charts provided, it seems clear some officials, like the governor’s representative, might not believe the filing requirements apply to them. However, given the findings in this report, we are still presented with a troubling lack of transparency from a government organism that by its very nature is also not democratic and has been imposed by the federal government.

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In passing PROMESA, Congress was able to create an entity that would be responsible for making the decisions it wasn’t willing to enforce, in the form of the Financial Oversight & Management Board for Puerto Rico. The board however, seems to be too good at playing the role of villain, to the point that members of Congress themselves are unhappy with the way the federally-mandated board is acting.

Reps. José Serrano (D-NY) and Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) have written a letter to Puerto Rico’s PROMESA Financial Oversight Board, demanding greater transparency and better stewardship of public funds.

“It has come to our attention,” the New York representatives wrote, “that the Oversight Board has spent over $30 million—which comes from Puerto Rican taxpayers—for salaries, equipment, and services during its first year of operations. At a time when the government of Puerto Rico and its people have had to endure financial sacrifices, it is incumbent upon the Board to do the same and lead by example.”

Granted, Congress could very well force the board to act as it wishes, but with a Republican majority focused on other priorities, the concerns of these two democratic representatives are likely not to going to cause changes to PROMESA.

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A common fact brought up during discussions of Puerto Rico’s status, is how it compares to the poorest state in the union, Mississippi. The Puerto Rico Report took a look at how the two jurisdictions compare and it is clear Puerto Rico is lagging behind.

Puerto Rico and Mississippi share historic similarities. Both have been affected by hurricanes and war – Mississippi was the 5th most prosperous state before the Civil War. They were both are founded on an agricultural economy and have large minority populations. Today, they both face educational challenges. Puerto Rico, like Mississippi, tends to lose its college graduates to states (in Mississippi’s case, other states) on the mainland.

Mississippi continues to face challenges, but the state has made strides over the past four decades and Mississippi is catching up. The hardworking people of Mississippi have better days ahead.

Puerto Rico has not seen these improvements. The trend is, in fact, moving in the opposite direction, with Mississippi outpacing Puerto Rio. Could there also be better days ahead for Puerto Rico?

With no clear end in sight for the crisis in the US territory, many point to the status as one of the underlying reasons for the stagnation. Will Congress take notice?

The post How Mississippi is Catching Up — and Puerto Rico Is Not appeared first on Pasquines.

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In clear efforts to win over conservative support for the statehood cause, governor Ricardo Rosselló gave a speech at the Heritage Foundation outlining his vision of fiscal responsibility.

“I challenge anyone to find a more aggressive agenda anywhere in the country,” he said.

In remarks that highlighted his administration’s emphasis on government accountability and fiscal responsibility, the Governor highlighted his early accomplishments and emphasized his top four areas for structural reform: (1) labor, (2) business permitting, (3) tax, and energy.  He reported on his success in enacting new laws to implement changes in labor and permitting policy and spoke about his goals for tax and energy reform.  With respect to tax, Gov. Rossello explained that his goal is to wide the base and decrease rates.  He added that his administration had already collected $60 million more than last year.  In terms of energy improvements, he declared that the era of an energy monopoly with high rates and low reliability was over.

Gov. Rossello reported that he had also amended the island’s public-private-partnership (P3) law to make is “slimmer and more effective.” He added to audience applause that “if a service is given, you should really question if the government should be giving it.”

He said that he inherited a government with 131 agencies that was borrowing uncontrollably, including inter-governmental borrowing, a situation he labeled as unsustainable.  He noted several times that he planned to vastly decrease the number of government agencies.  He will also seek to promote tourism and solidify Puerto Rico’s brand as a top tourist destination.

“We have to change the narrative in Puerto Rico,” he stated.  Whereas in the past Puerto Rico had spent its resources until government officials came to Washington for additional money, he promised controls, solid plans and no bailouts.

Despite these efforts, don’t hold your breath on any sudden Republican support for changing Puerto Rico’s status.

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