Press Releases

Just as the newly-convened 115^th Congress began this week, Virgin Islands Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett brought the issue of unequal treatment of the territories to the forefront.

Plaskett took the unprecedented and extraordinary step of interrupting the official vote for Speaker of the House to highlight the fact that the Delegates of the Territories are not allowed to cast their vote for the Speaker of the House and are not allowed a vote in Committee of the Whole.

“I rise because my name or the names of the five representatives of the territories duly elected by collectively four million Americans, our names were not called. And i ask parliamentary inquiry as to why not at this time at this juncture in the United States that the territories do not have a voice on this floor?,” Plaskett asked.

The second-term Congresswoman has continued to push for equal treatment of the territories and has made Voting Rights for residents living within U.S. Territories a topic of discussion since taking office in 2015.

Most notably, Plaskett a comment on Voting Rights was featured on HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver in 2015 and has since sparked a new National conversation on Voting Rights in the United States.

View Congresswoman Plaskett’s remarks during the opening of the 115^th Congress https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4641097/plaskett-territorial-delegates-allowed-vote-speaker-house

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