informal interagency committees have been established in recent years to foster coordination of territorial and insular affairs, The White House Task Force on Puerto Rico represents the Common- wealth in policy and administrative matters. Interior and the White House co-chair an informal interagency committee to address and resolve issues affecting the territories. This committee meets irregularly, and generally only when issues or problems arise. It does not address major policy matters such as political status. A third interagency body handles matters associated with the Micronesian status negotiations. In 1983, Interior established separate interagency subgroups to address health and economic issues. According to the Assistant Secretary for Territorial and International Affairs, the committees were formed to "get the federal family moving in the same direction." He indicated that these groups have improved communication among high-level agency officials and improved the quality of programs and services available to insular area governments. Territory officials provided a mixed response to federal agency involvement in program administration and policy. The officials generally are satisfied with the current multiple agency involvement in grant and assistance programs and said they have learned to work with individual agencies which have become more attentive and sympathetic to territorial problems. Most were strongly administration under opposed one to centralizing agency. Territory program and officials grant said a move to create a bureaucratic layer or "middleman" to ensure coordination and program review iS unnecessary, counterproductive, and contrary to the territories' desire for increased local autonomy. Puerto Rico officials particularly oppose any change in the current decentralized federal approach for program administration. In contrast, many territorial officials express the need for better federal policy coordination. As noted in chapter 5, the territories have expressed dissatisfaction with various policies made by different federal agencies which have directly affected them and constrained development efforts. Questions on tax policy are handled by Treasury, environmental policy by the Environmental Protection Agency, immigration policy by the Immi- gration and Naturalization Service, and so forth. Territory officials believe the current organizational framework involving many federal agencies is not effectively addressing their policy concerns, especially are not considered in development strategy. 9000259 economic development, a systematic 43 because fashion based on their needs an overall