[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 111 (Friday, August 7, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H7426-H7427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           INTRODUCTION OF THE NORTHERN MARIANAS DELEGATE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Guam (Mr. Underwood) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to talk about a 
piece of legislation that I dropped yesterday, that I introduced 
yesterday, and this is the Northern Marianas Delegate Act to provide 
for a nonvoting delegate to the House of Representatives to represent 
the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. The Commonwealth of 
the Northern Marianas Islands is the newest commonwealth and the only 
American territory acquired by the United States in this century.
  Many people are familiar with the fact that the CNMI was the site of 
the famous battle of Saipan during World War II, but are less familiar 
with the history of that group of islands. Guam, the island that I 
represent, is part of the Marianas, but had a slightly different 
history since Guam was taken by the United States as a result of the 
Spanish-American War 100 years ago.
  The CNMI, as I mentioned, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
Islands, the newest commonwealth and the newest territory of the United 
States, came into the United States in 1976, after it made a free 
choice to have a close political union with the United States, they 
being formerly part of an organization, an entity known as the Trust 
Territory of the Pacific Islands.
  When the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands came into the 
United States in 1976, it was decided at that time, and the people of 
the CNMI were discouraged from having a delegate in this body. Then 
subsequently in the 1980s, a Commission of Federal Laws appointed by 
President Reagan in 1985 then recommended that the CNMI should have a 
delegate in the House of Representatives. The reasons outlined were 
fairness, democratic principles, and practical utility.
  Today, the CNMI is represented, very ably I might add, by a gentleman 
by the name of Juan Babauta who is in an elected position called the 
Resident Representative of the Northern Mariana Islands. But he is not 
accredited to this House.
  Frequently, we like to state in this body that this is the People's 
House, and that all Americans are represented in the People's House. 
Yet there remains one group of Americans who cannot participate in the 
debate over policy which directs their lives. There is one group of 
Americans who cannot

[[Page H7427]]

introduce legislation on their own behalf. There is one group of 
Americans who cannot protect themselves when they are under attack or 
under criticism in this body. That group of Americans are the Americans 
of the Northern Marianas Islands.
  Mr. Speaker, in the name of all that is fair; in the name of the 
American sense of fair play; in the American quest for the perfection 
of democratic principles and the full implementation of representative 
democracy, the Americans of the Northern Marianas Islands deserve to be 
heard and deserve to have their points of view addressed in the context 
of this House.
  I am a nonvoting delegate from the Island of Guam, and even though 
there are many restrictions attached to the nature of the office I 
hold, I am here and I can have the freedom of mobility and the freedom 
to use all the talents that I have been blessed with, and to use all 
the energy that the people of Guam continue to provide me with, to 
represent their interests in the pursuit of legislation which will 
benefit my people.
  Unfortunately, there is one group of Americans who are not afforded 
this opportunity, and those are the people of the Northern Marianas 
Islands.
  There are many issues attendant to the Northern Mariana Islands, 
including alleged labor abuses, which have attracted the attention of 
the national media and for which many Members of Congress are vitally 
concerned about, myself included. I too am vitally concerned about 
that. But those problems that may exist in the Northern Marianas 
Islands should not be an impediment to being allowed to represent 
themselves.
  The principle of representative democracy stands before us as one of 
the core principles of the American creed. And it is ironic that today 
in the People's House, not all of the people that call themselves 
American citizens, that are blessed to be American citizens, are 
represented here.
  So I call upon my colleagues to cosponsor this legislation and to 
move this legislation so that all Americans can speak on their own 
behalf and represent their own best interests.

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