[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 119 (Thursday, July 10, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E649]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              INTRODUCTION OF THE PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. ED CASE

                               of hawaii

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 10, 2025

  Mr. CASE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my Pacific 
Partnership Act, co-introduced with Congresswoman Radewagen of American 
Samoa and cosponsored by 21 of our colleagues. A companion version of 
our bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senator Cortez Masto of 
Nevada and Senator Ernst of Iowa.
  Scattered across the three traditional Pacific subregions of 
Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia are over two dozen jurisdictions 
collectively known as the Pacific Islands, including twelve independent 
states, countries in free association and territories. Though small in 
land area and population, the land plus maritime exclusive economic 
zones of all these jurisdictions combined exceed the land areas of 
China and Russia combined, comprising a significant part of the vast 
Pacific Ocean and our Earth's surface.
  The Pacific Islands region remains critical to our national security 
interests in the Indo-Pacific and advises greater U.S. engagement to 
advance our shared interests and values, particularly in the context of 
growing geopolitical competition and threats by our shared adversaries 
to endanger the pursuit of a free and open Indo-Pacific.
  To bolster U.S. engagement with this region, we have reintroduced our 
Pacific Partnership Act, which passed the House unanimously in the 
118th Congress. Our bill supports the tenets of the 2050 Strategy for 
the Blue Pacific Continent, the guiding framework of the Pacific 
Islands Forum, the region's premier multilateral organization with 
eighteen members across Oceania.
  Specifically, this bipartisan, bicameral bill would require the 
President to develop and submit to Congress a Strategy for Pacific 
Partnership, extend diplomatic privileges and immunities to the Pacific 
Islands Forum (PIF) in the hopes that the PIF will establish a mission 
to the U.S., direct the President to consult and coordinate with allies 
and partners in the Pacific Islands region and update certain reports 
regarding transnational crime affecting the Pacific Islands.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation to 
sustain and expand U.S. engagement in this critical region.

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