[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 7 (Tuesday, January 13, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E68]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CONGRATULATING GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN ON HIS ELECTION AS THE 
   FIRST DELEGATE TO CONGRESS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE NORTHERN 
                            MARIANA ISLANDS

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO

                                of guam

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 13, 2009

  Ms. BORDALLO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Mr. 
Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan on his historic election as the first 
Delegate to Congress from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
Islands (CNMI). His election comes twenty-two years after the U.S. 
Government first granted the residents of the CNMI U.S. Citizenship and 
12 years after my predecessor, Congressman Robert A. Underwood, 
introduced the first bill to provide for a CNMI Delegate in the 104th 
Congress. Born on the island of Saipan on January 19, 1955, Mr. Sablan 
graduated from Marianas High School and attended the University of 
Guam, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of 
Hawaii at Manoa.
  Mr. Sablan has a long record of public service to the people of the 
CNMI beginning with his election to the third Commonwealth Legislature 
in the CNMI House of Representatives. While in that office, he worked 
with the Assistant Secretary of the Interior to secure funding for the 
CNMI. Mr. Sablan returns to the halls of Congress as a Delegate after 
previously working as a Special Assistant to Senator Daniel Inouye of 
Hawaii. Mr. Sablan then returned to the CNMI to work as a Special 
Assistant for Management and Budget under Governor Froilan Tenorio and 
most recently, he worked as the Executive Director of the Election 
Commission.
  This historic event for the people of the CNMI and the U.S. Congress 
marks the first time the CNMI will have representation in the U.S. 
House of Representatives. The 110th Congress passed legislation that 
was signed into law by the President on May 8, 2008, and that among its 
other provisions, authorized the election to Congress of a CNMI 
Delegate (Title VII of U.S. Public Law 110-229). The addition of the 
CNMI Delegate seat marks the first time membership in the House has 
expanded since Congress provided for the election of a Delegate to 
represent American Samoa in 1980. The addition of the CNMI Delegate 
seat brings the total number of Delegates representing the territories 
and the District of Columbia in the House of Representatives to six.
  As a neighbor in the Western Pacific and a fellow territorial 
Delegate, I welcome my new colleague, Mr. Sablan, to Washington, D.C. 
as the first Delegate to represent the CNMI in Congress. The 
historically close ties between the people of Guam and the people of 
the CNMI will provide for a solid foundation on which to work together 
toward common goals in Washington, D.C. I look forward to strengthening 
these ties with Mr. Sablan and working together toward sensible and 
effective Federal government in the Mariana Islands. This momentous 
occasion renews the promise of the founding principles of American 
democracy, that of representative government by its citizens. As we 
move forward in the 111th Congress, I extend my warmest welcome and 
congratulations to the people of the CNMI.

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