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Name: Babauta, Tony
Current Position: Former Assistant Secretary
Anthony Marion (Tony) Babauta was confirmed as the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs on September 10, 2009. He oversees federal administration of the United States possessions of Guam, the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa. Babauta is the first native islander to hold this position, which the Obama administration raised to Assistant Secretary status for the first time since 1994.
Babauta, born in 1969 in Agat, Guam, is the son of Antonio and Mary Babauta. Although his father’s military career caused him to grow up in various locales, his family came back to Guam when he was high school age, and he graduated from Father Dueñas Memorial School, an all-boys Catholic High School in Mangilao, Guam, in 1987. He left Guam for Spokane, Washington, earning his B.A. in Communications from Gonzaga University in 1991.
Returning home to Guam after graduation, Babauta commenced his career in public service in the Guam Legislature, initially with Territorial Senator Elizabeth Arriola and then with Senator Madeleine Bordallo, who later, since 2003, has been the Guamanian Delegate to Congress. In 1998, Babauta moved to Washington, DC, to become a legislative assistant to Guam Delegate Robert Underwood, although he was hired the next year to serve as a professional staff member for the House Committee on Natural Resources, a position he held through 2006. As a result of Democratic victories in the November 2006 Congressional elections, Babauta in 2007 became Majority Staff Director of the Committee’s Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, which exercises oversight regarding the same island possessions for which Babauta now has administrative responsibility. He held that position through May 2009.
Babauta married Barbara J. Bradney in October 2001. The couple has a daughter, Gabriella. A Democrat, Babauta has donated $600 to Democratic candidates since 2001, including $200 to Guam Delegate Robert Underwood (his former employer) in 2001, and $400 to Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo in 2005.
Babauta confirmed as Interior's assistant chief for insular areas (by Haidee V. Eugenio, Saipan Tribune)
Anthony Babauta (WhoRunsGov, Washington Post)
