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 Seal and Logo of the Office of Insular Affairs | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | September 14, 1934 |
| Preceding agencies |
|
| Jurisdiction | United States federal government |
| Headquarters | Main Interior Building 1849 C Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20240 |
| Employees | 40 permanent |
| Annual budget | $597 million (2015) |
| Agency executive |
|
| Parent agency | Department of the Interior |
| Website | Official website |
TheOffice of Insular Affairs (OIA) is a unit of theUnited States Department of the Interior that oversees federal administration of several United Statesinsular areas. It is the successor to theBureau of Insular Affairs of theWar Department, which administered certain territories from 1902 to 1939, and theOffice of Territorial Affairs (formerly the Division of Territories and Island Possessions and then the Office of Territories) in the Interior Department, which was responsible for certain territories from the 1930s to the 1990s. The word "insular" comes from theLatin wordinsula ("island").
Currently, the OIA has administrative responsibility for coordinating federal policy in the territories ofAmerican Samoa,Guam, theU.S. Virgin Islands, and theCommonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and oversight of federal programs and funds in the freely associatedFederated States of Micronesia, theRepublic of the Marshall Islands, and theRepublic of Palau.
The OIA, led by the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Areas, also has jurisdiction of "excluded areas" ofPalmyra Atoll[1] and "residual administration" ofWake Island.[2]
Relations between the United States andPuerto Rico are coordinated between theOffice of the Deputy Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and thePuerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, not the OIA.
The office has evolved over the years along with changes in administration and in United States territories.
Prior to the 1930s, responsibility for administration of United States possessions was divided among several government departments.Alaska andHawaii were under the Interior Department;Puerto Rico and thePhilippine Islands were administered by theBureau of Insular Affairs in theWar Department; and theUnited States Virgin Islands,Guam, andAmerican Samoa were administered by theUnited States Department of the Navy.
TheDivision of Territories and Island Possessions, from 1934 to 1950 was responsible for administering theInterior Department's responsibilities over the territories and island possessions of the United States that were consolidated into theInterior Department. Under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior, the Division served as a mediator between the territories and Federal government by performing administrative activities for the territorial governments and taking on colonization projects that furthered the interests of the United States in those areas.[3]
The Division was established within theInterior Department on May 29, 1934 underPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 6726[4] pursuant of theEconomy Act of March 20, 1933 which required the President to reorganize the Executive branch. The Executive Order transferred the administrative functions overPuerto Rico from theBureau of Insular Affairs War Department to the newly formed division.
On February 13, 1936 by Secretary Order 1040, the Division was assigned responsibilities from theInterior Department over territorial affairs inAlaska, the Alaska Railroad project, theAlaska Road Commission, and the jurisdiction over theHawaiian Islands and theU.S. Virgin Islands. In May 1936 and March 1938 by Executive Order 7368[5] and Executive Order 7828,[6]Baker Island,Howland Island,Jarvis Island,Canton Island, andEnderbury Island were placed under theInterior Department and assigned to the Division.[7]
On July 1, 1939, theBureau of Insular Affairs War Department and its functions, including its administrative responsibilities over thePhilippine Islands was transferred to theInterior Department and consolidated with the Division by the Reorganization Plan No. II of 1939.[8]
In 1943, the Division was reorganized into three geographic and two functional branches: Hawaii and the Philippine Islands, Alaska, and Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Legal, and Administrative.
In 1949, the Division's administrative responsibilities were expanded to includeGuam by Executive Order 10077[9] and made effective July 1, 1950 by Executive Order 10137.[10] In 1950, the Office of Territories was established and the functions of the Division were transferred to the Office by the Secretarial Order No. 2577.[11]
The first Director of Territories wasErnest Gruening, who served from 1934 to 1939, and later served as the territorial governor of Alaska and then as one of the firstsenators elected from Alaska upon statehood.
The major publication from the Division is the Annual Reports of theDepartment of the Interior that has a section on the Division of Territories and Island Possessions written by the Director outlining the Division's activities over the past fiscal year. Additionally, the Division published general information serial pamphlets on Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Territories of Alaska and Hawaii, and later general information on the Trust Territory. The Division also published specific reports pertaining to Alaska's postwar period and road and agricultural development efforts, as well as a report on surplus property of its administrative areas.
In 1950, the Division's name was changed to theOffice of Territories and the office's work was significantly reduced in 1952 after Puerto Rico attainedcommonwealth status and in 1959 Alaska and Hawaii weregranted statehood.
In 1971, the Office of Territories was temporarily abolished and administration was coordinated by a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Territorial Affairs in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Land Management. In 1973, the agency was reconstituted as theOffice of Territorial Affairs, which remained the designation until 1980, when anOffice of Assistant Secretary for Territorial and International Affairs was created. (The designation "international" refers to what became thefreely associated states of theMarshall Islands, theFederated States of Micronesia, andPalau.)
Today, the Interior Department, through the Office of Insular Affairs, continues to be responsible for the outlyinginsular areas including American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and theNorthern Mariana Islands.
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This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theNational Archives and Records Administration. This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theU.S. Office of Insular Affairs.
