WASHINGTON, D.C\u2014Natural Resources Committee chair Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and vice chair Gregorio Kilili Sablan (Ind-MP) praised yesterday President Joe Biden\u2019s hiring of Gretchen Sierra Zorita to the newly created position of White House associate director for Puerto Rico and Territories, which will coordinate with the U.S. Congress to better address longstanding issues of importance to the millions of citizens and nationals living in U.S. territories.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Biden administration\u2019s choice to create this position and staff it with such an experienced, knowledgeable leader is admirable and deserves our heartfelt thanks,\u201d Grijalva said. \u201cThe executive branch can improve the lives of millions of U.S. citizens and nationals living in the territories by expanding access to federal programs that already benefit other Americans, helping to resolve Puerto Rico\u2019s political status, and strengthening meaningful political representation. The Biden administration understands that we can\u2019t claim to live up to American ideals as long as we treat millions of people as second-class citizens, and I look forward to working closely with Ms. Sierra Zorita to address these issues as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Biden\u2019s decision to appoint an associate director in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs with responsibility for the non-state areas of our nation is very welcome,\u201d Sablan said. \u201cThe former President promised an executive-level Territory and Commonwealth Advisory Committee and a special assistant for territories and Commonwealths, but forgot those promises once in office. I look forward to working with\u2026Sierra Zorita as the Biden administration implements the President\u2019s commitment to making more federal resources available to underserved communities like those in the U.S. insular areas.\u201d (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON, D.C\u2014Natural Resources Committee chair Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and vice chair Gregorio Kilili Sablan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":330355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}