States federal officials may be willing to consider?" The answer given is: "The People
of the Virgin Islands are unquestionably entitled to exercise their right of self-
determination. We cannot accept the idea that self-determination means the people of
the Virgin Islands must first inquire of federal officials what they are willing to consider
before the people of the Virgin Islands may determine what they want. Furthermore,
the official position of the United States is that the people in the offshore areas have
been, and are, free to work out political relationships with the United States best suited
to their circumstances."

 On March 22, 1988, Act 5532 accepted the Report of the Select Committee and
established a Commission on Status and Federal Relations to implement it. The
Commission was composed of 15 members, with 7 appointed by the Governor and 7
by the Senate President, with the Chief Judge of the Territorial Court serving ex office
as Secretary.18 The Commission was co-chaired by designees of the Governor
and Senate President. It was charged with conducting a public education campaign
prior to the referendum scheduled for November 14, 1989. At the referendum, the
public would now be given 7 status choices, instead of the 6 provided in the Select
Committee Report, as commonwealth was added as a result of a floor amendment. If
no status choice received a majority of votes cast in the first election, a run-off would
be held between the two top choices. No other changes were made in the process
recommended in the Select Committee Report.

 When the Commission on Status and Federal Relations was activated, a debate
 ensued regarding the referendum process established by the Select Committee
 Report and Act 5532. Advocates of a commonwealth option were concerned that there
 was no draft bill outlining its features, as was true of compact, independence,
 statehood, and free association. In addition, if the vote were held as authorized, it
 would be impossible to reject specific features of commonwealth while approving the
 option as a whole, as there was no accompanying draft bill. There was also concern
 that the selection process was too complicated, and that voters could be confused by a
 selection among seven complicated status options accompanied by four (or five)
 detailed bills, including the ability to reject specific provisions. An earlier survey of
 voters held at the time of the 1988 election by the Commission confirmed that a great
 many people were uncertain about the meaning of both political status and the
 choices they faced.19 Also, it was unclear if the provisions of these draft bills would be
 binding on future negotiators once approved in the referendum. Another important
 factor at work was that several members of the Commission believed that a properly
 drafted Commonwealth option would allow them to address native concerns in such
 areas as land holding, job preferences, cultural protection and local autonomy that, in
 their judgment, were not adequately met by the draft compact. The result of these
 considerations was several amendments to Act 5332 that significantly restructured the
 referendum process.

 The first set of amendments were contained in Act 5426, passed on August 4,
 1989. It added a commonwealth bill to those previously contained in the Select


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