Gov. John deJongh Jr. and Delegate Donna Christensen met this week in Washington, D.C., with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer to counter Puerto Rico’s campaign to alter the way rum cover-over funds can be used.
Puerto Rico officials and supporters are trying to convince Congress to change the way the territories can use rum cover-over funds – money allocated to the territory and Puerto Rico based on the amount of rum from those territories sold in the United States.
If the measure, House Resolution 2122, were to pass, it would call into question the two economic development partnerships the territory has entered into with Cruzan Rum and Diageo, maker of Captain Morgan’s Rum, to build or expand facilities on St. Croix and produce rum there for the next 30 years.
This week V.I. officials counterattacked. Prior to the meeting with Pelosi and Hoyer, both deJongh and Christensen fired off angry letters to the lawmakers and to Rep. Charles Rangel, the chairman of the Ways & Means Committee that has jurisdiction over the bill.
Wednesday the pair sat down with Speaker Pelosi and Hoyer and accused Puerto Rico of waging a battle of misinformation against the Virgin Islands’ economic development initiatives, according to a statement released by Government House.
“While we don’t believe … (the) bill will get a hearing, we wanted to make sure that the leadership of the House had a balanced view on the issues in wake of an aggressive campaign in the Capitol Hill media that distorted the Virgin Islands’ use of the cover-over proceeds,” Christensen said.
Gov. deJongh explained to the lawmakers that the U.S. Virgin Islands did not recruit Diageo and that the company had already decided it could not reach a reasonable business arrangement with the firm producing Captain Morgan’s in Puerto Rico. Had the territory not stepped in, Diageo may well have moved to South America, taking U.S. jobs with it, the governor said.
He said the agreement with Diageo and the similar deal with Cruzan Rum give the territory the opportunity to stabilize its economic development well into the future.
“These public-private partnerships are good for Virgin Islanders, good for our business community, and good for the United States,” deJongh said. “Rather than let a small faction threaten the Virgin Islands’ future economic growth, we are making sure that Speaker Pelosi and other members of Congress know the truth about our economic strategy."
