Legislature of the Virgin Islands

"Legislature of the United States Virgin Islands" redirects here. For the legislative body in the British overseas territory, see House of Assembly of the British Virgin Islands.

Legislature of the United States Virgin Islands
31st Legislature
Type
Type	Unicameral
Leadership
President of the Legislature	Neville James (D) Since 11 January 2015
Structure
Seats	15
Political groups	Democratic Party: (11)   Independent: (3)   Independent Citizens Movement: (1)
Elections
Last election	November 4, 2014
Meeting place
Charlotte Amalie
Website
http://www.legvi.org/

The Legislature of the Virgin Islands is the territorial legislature of the United States Virgin Islands. The legislative branch of the unincorporated U.S. territory is unicameral, with a single house consisting of 15 senators, elected to two-year terms without term limits. The territorial legislature meets in the capital of Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas.

History

The Danish period: 1852-1917

The roots of the modern legislature date to the passage of the Colonial Law in 1852 during the Danish colonial period. The law created a Colonial Assembly for the Danish West Indies, as well as the appointment of a vice-regent serving as the colony’s governor executive, serving on behalf of the King of Denmark. Despite the name, the Colonial Assembly acted more as an advisory body than a true legislature. Vice-regents continued to reserve the right to reject or amend any law they did not see fit.

A further Colonial Law coming in 1863 broke the Assembly into two parts, creating a colonial council for the newly created St. Thomas and St. John Municipality, and a separate colonial council for the St. Croix Municipality. The 1863 law provided the councils to combine into a single legislature when called upon by the Vice-regent or by legislators themselves, and gave legislators greater say in the colony's finances. However, the Danish monarch still reserved the right to pick several members of the councils, giving Copenhagen a continued say in the colony's legislative affairs. The monarch-appointed vice-regent and the king also continued to reserve the right to pass or deny any colonial bills brought upon their desks. The voting franchise of this period remained low, hovering just under six percent.

The American period: 1917-present

Upon the U.S. purchase of the islands from Denmark in 1917 by fears of German expansion into the Caribbean, the renamed U.S. Virgin Islands government underwent a gradual overhaul. From 1917 to 1931, the U.S. Navy administered the islands, with a Navy officer serving gubernatorial duties, while the colonial councils for the territory's two municipalities created by the Danes fifty years earlier remained with little change. Islanders were granted American citizenship in 1927, and after popular discontent with incompetent naval rule, the islands came under the supervision of the federal Department of the Interior in 1931.

The U.S. Congress' passage of the 1936 Organic Act brought the greatest amount of self-government the islands had ever known. For the first time, all islanders above the age of 21 enjoyed universal suffrage. The colonial councils—now municipal councils—could combine when desired to form a Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Assembly now could override gubernatorial vetoes with a two-thirds majority, a parliamentary procedure endowed to the U.S. Congress and various state legislatures. The federal Congress and President, however, continued to reserve the right to veto territorial legislation.

The Modern Legislature

The Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands of 1954 dissolved the two Municipal Councils, creating a permanent unified and unicameral Legislature of the Virgin Islands. A revision in the territory’s constitution in 1966 increased the number of legislators from its original amount of 11 to 15.

Today, the Legislature of the Virgin Islands is a territorial legislative body with the same rights and powers comparable to that of many state legislatures within the United States.

The Legislature

The Legislature is a unicameral body, one of the four such legislative bodies in the United States, along with Nebraska, Guam and the District of Columbia. The Legislature meets inside the Senate Building in Charlotte Amalie, a restored Danish and American military barracks building as well as a former high school.

It is composed of 15 senators, each serving two-year terms. The territory is divided into two multimember constituencies, with seven senators representing each, while a single senator from St. John is elected at large. The Legislature is the only one of its kind in the United States where the Republican Party has no representation whatsoever (except for Puerto Rico, which has its own local parties but members ally themselves with the Republican party nationally).

Qualifications to be a senator include being over or at least 21 years of age, a U.S. citizen, a resident of the Virgin Islands for three years, and a qualified resident of their representing district.

Current Composition

Affiliation	Party (Shading indicates majority/plurality)			Total
	Democratic	Independent Citizens	Independent		Vacant
End of previous Legislature	10	1	4	15	0
Begin	11	1	3	15	0
Latest voting share	73.3%	6.7%	20%

Members

District	Name	Party	Term
At-large	Almando "Rocky" Liburd	Independent	7th Term
St. Croix	Kurt Vialet	Democratic	1st Term
	Novelle Francis	Democratic	1st Term
	Kenneth Gittens	Democratic	2nd Term
	Neville James	Democratic	5rd Term
	Terrence "Positive" Nelson	Independent Citizens	6th Term
	Nellie Rivera-O'Reilly	Independent	3rd Term
	Sammuel Sanes	Democratic	3rd Term
St. Thomas/ St. John	Marvin Blyden	Democratic	1st Term
	Clifford Graham	Democratic	2nd Term
	Myron Jackson	Democratic	2nd Term
	Janette Millin Young	Democratic	3rd Term
	Jean Forde	Democratic	1st Term
	Justin Harrigan Sr	Democratic	1st Term
	Tregenza Roach	Independent	2nd Term