View source for Office of Insular Affairs

{{short description|Subsidiary of the Department of the Interior}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Cleanup|reason=Very little content on the modern office or what it does; article focuses almost entirely on long-term name and portfolio changes.|date=December 2019}}
{{U.S. federal government neutrality|date=December 2019}}
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{{Infobox government agency
|agency_name = Office of Insular Affairs
|logo = Office of Insular Affairs seal.png
|logo_width = 150px
|logo_caption = Seal and Logo of the Office of Insular Affairs
|seal = 
|seal_width = 
|seal_caption = 
|formed = September 14, 1934
|date1 =
|date1_name =
|date2 =
|date2_name =
|preceding1 = Office of Territorial Affairs 
|preceding2 = Division of Territories and Island Possessions
|dissolved =
|superseding =
|jurisdiction = [[Federal government of the United States|United States federal government]]
|headquarters = [[Main Interior Building]]<br>1849&nbsp;C Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20240
|employees = 40 permanent
|budget = $597 million (2015)
|chief1_name = [[Carmen Cantor]]
|chief1_position = Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas 
|chief2_name =
|chief2_position =
|parent_agency = [[United States Department of the Interior|Department of the Interior]]
|website = {{official website|https://www.doi.gov/oia}}
|footnotes =
}}

The '''Office of Insular Affairs''' ('''OIA''') is a unit of the [[United States Department of the Interior]] that oversees federal administration of several United States [[insular areas]]. It is the successor to the [[Bureau of Insular Affairs]] of the [[United States War Department|War Department]], which administered certain territories from 1902 to 1939, and the '''Office 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 the [[Latin]] word ''insula'' ("[[Island#Etymology|island]]").

Currently, the OIA has administrative responsibility for coordinating federal policy in the territories of [[American Samoa]], [[Guam]], the [[U.S. Virgin Islands]], and the [[Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands]], and oversight of federal programs and funds in the freely associated [[Federated States of Micronesia]], the [[Republic of the Marshall Islands]], and the [[Republic of Palau]].

The OIA, led by the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Areas, also has jurisdiction of "excluded areas" of [[Palmyra Atoll]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.doi.gov/oia/islands/palmyraatoll.cfm|title=OIA Palmyra Atoll}}</ref> and "residual administration" of [[Wake Island]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.doi.gov/oia/islands/wakeatoll.cfm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201162044/http://www.doi.gov/oia/islands/wakeatoll.cfm|title=OIA Wake Atoll|archive-date=February 1, 2014}}</ref>

Relations between the United States and [[Puerto Rico]] are coordinated between the [[White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs|Office of the Deputy Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs]] and the [[Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration]], not the OIA.

==History==
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]] and [[Hawaii]] were under the Interior Department; [[Puerto Rico]] and the [[Philippines|Philippine Islands]] were administered by the [[Bureau of Insular Affairs]] in the [[United States Department of War|War Department]]; and the [[United States Virgin Islands]], [[Guam]], and [[American Samoa]] were administered by the [[United States Department of the Navy]].

===Division of Territories and Island Possessions===
The '''Division of Territories and Island Possessions''', from 1934 to 1950 was responsible for administering the [[Interior Department]]'s responsibilities over the territories and island possessions of the United States that were consolidated into the [[Interior 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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=United States Department of Interior|title=Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1884-1956 (from 1936-1950 includes the report of the Division of Territories and Island Possessions)}}</ref>

The Division was established within the [[Interior Department]] on May 29, 1934 under [[President Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s Executive Order 6726<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/_resources/images/eo/eo0020.pdf|title=Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations, 1933-1936|website=Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum Documents Collection|access-date=May 8, 2017}}</ref> pursuant of the [[Economy Act of March 20, 1933]] which required the President to reorganize the Executive branch. The Executive Order transferred  the administrative functions over [[Puerto Rico]] from the [[Bureau of Insular Affairs]] War Department to the newly formed division.

On February 13, 1936 by Secretary Order 1040, the Division was assigned responsibilities from the [[Interior Department]] over territorial affairs in [[Alaska]], the Alaska Railroad project, the [[Alaska Road Commission]], and the jurisdiction over the [[Hawaiian Islands]] and the [[U.S. Virgin Islands]]. In May 1936 and March 1938 by Executive Order 7368<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Roosevelt|first=Franklin D.|date=May 13, 1936|title=Executive Order No. 7368 Placing Certain Islands in the Pacific Ocean Under the Control and Jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior|url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.fedreg/001044&div=1&id=&page=&collection=fedreg|journal=Federal Register|volume=1|pages=405}}</ref> and Executive Order 7828,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Roosevelt|first=Franklin D.|date=March 3, 1938|title=Executive Order No. 7828 Placing Certain Islands in the Pacific Ocean Under the Control and Jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior|url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.fedreg/003046&div=1&src=home|journal=Federal Register|volume=3|pages=609}}</ref> [[Baker Island]], [[Howland Island]], [[Jarvis Island]], [[Canton Island]], and [[Enderbury Island]] were placed under the [[Interior Department]] and assigned to the Division.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/126.html|title=Records of the Office of Territories|website=U.S. National Archives and Records Administration|access-date=May 8, 2017}}</ref>

On July 1, 1939, the [[Bureau of Insular Affairs]] War Department and its functions, including its administrative responsibilities over the [[Philippine Islands]] was transferred to the [[Interior Department]] and consolidated with the Division by the Reorganization Plan No. II of 1939.<ref>[https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action;jsessionid=c7TAI_bahwbQ3Ia4Wvd2IWDJfPwDW602B3humpq-4d4FM-9cQsMe!1839755381!-710967749?browsePath=Title+5%2FTitle+5%2F1407%2F-1409&granuleId=USCODE-2010-title5-app-reorganiz-other-dup1&packageId=USCODE-2010-title5&collapse=true&fromBrowse=true 5 U.S.C. - Reorganization Plan No. II of 1939]</ref>

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 include [[Guam]] by Executive Order 10077<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=59320|title=Executive Order No. 10077 Transfer of the Administration of the Island of Guam From the Secretary of the Navy to the Secretary of the Interior|last=Truman|first=Harry S.|date=September 7, 1949|website=The American Presidency Project|access-date=May 8, 2017}}</ref> and made effective July 1, 1950 by Executive Order 10137.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=78315|title=Executive Order No. 10137 Amending Executive Order No. 10077 of September 7, 1949, Entitled "Transfer of the Administration of the Island of Guam from the Secretary of the Navy to the Secretary of the Interior|last=Truman|first=Harry S.|date=June 30, 1950|website=The American Presidency Project|access-date=May 8, 2017}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Office of Territories (Record Group 126).|last=Maxwell|first=Richard|last2=Walker|first2=Evans|publisher=National Archives and Records Service General Services Administration|year=1963|location=Washington|pages=1–7}}</ref>

The first Director of Territories was [[Ernest Gruening]], who served from 1934 to 1939, and later served as the territorial governor of Alaska and then as one of the first [[United States Senate|senators]] elected from Alaska upon statehood.

The major publication from the Division is the Annual Reports of the [[Department 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.

===Office of Territories===
In 1950, the Division's name was changed to the '''Office of Territories''' and the office's work was significantly reduced in 1952 after Puerto Rico attained [[Commonwealth (U.S. insular area)|commonwealth]] status and in 1959 Alaska and Hawaii were [[List of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union|granted statehood]].

=== Office of Territorial Affairs ===
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 the '''Office of Territorial Affairs''', which remained the designation until 1980, when an '''Office of Assistant Secretary for Territorial and International Affairs''' was created. (The designation "international" refers to what became the [[freely associated states]] of the [[Marshall Islands]], the [[Federated States of Micronesia]], and [[Palau]].)

Today, the Interior Department, through the Office of Insular Affairs, continues to be responsible for the outlying [[insular area]]s including American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the [[Northern Mariana Islands]].

== See also ==
*[[Insular area]]
* [[Compact of Free Association]]

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* Emerson, Rupert, et al. ''America's Pacific Dependences: A Survey of American Colonial Policies and of Administration and Progress toward Self-Rule in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Samoa and the Trust Territory''. (American Institute of Pacific Relations 1949).
* National Archives and Records Administration (Richard S. Maxwell and Evans Walker, comps.), ''Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Office of Territories'', Preliminary Inventory No. 154 (1963).
* Perkins, Whitney T. ''Denial of Empire: The United States and its Dependencies''. (A. W. Sythoff 1962).
* Van Cleve, Ruth G. ''The Office of Territorial Affairs'' (Praeger Publishers 1974).
* {{NARA}}
* {{US government sources |agency = '''U.S. Office of Insular Affairs''' }}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
*{{official website}}

{{DOI agencies}}
{{United States government agencies involved in environmental science}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Government of insular areas of the United States]]
[[Category:United States Department of the Interior agencies|Insular Affairs]]
[[Category:1934 establishments in the United States]]
[[Category:Government agencies established in 1934]]