In the nation’s capital for a week of meetings with federal officials, Gov. John deJongh Jr. met Wednesday with Rep. Sander Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Subcommittee on Trade in the House Ways and Means Committee.
DeJongh also met with Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) and Joe Crowley (D-NY).
While meeting with Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) they discussed the governor’s efforts to finalize the exchange of land for the development of a school on St. John and the acquisition of the Alexander Hamilton homestead at Estate Grange on St. Croix, according to a statement from Government House.
The governor briefed these members of Congress on issues affecting the territory, from economic development and taxation to the need for equitable treatment for Virgin Islanders in federal healthcare reform legislation.
Thursday, deJongh was to meet with officials of the Senate Finance Committee and from the Department of the Interior. He was also slated to meet with acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Kenneth Melson. The governor and Attorney General Vincent Frazer will discuss issues concerning the presence of the ATF in the Virgin Islands and recently proposed legislation which seeks to clarify the powers of federal agents while on assignment in the territory.
The ATF, which helps regulate guns and battle violent crime, pulled all four of its agents out of the territory last fall over a dispute concerning those powers and the parameters defining when a federal officer is protected from local prosecution when on duty and acting under color of official authority.
