[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 82 (Thursday, May 14, 2026)]
[House]
[Pages H3465-H3466]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       SUPER TYPHOON SINLAKU RECOVERY IN NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS

  (Ms. King-Hinds of Northern Mariana Islands was recognized to address 
the House for 5 minutes.)
  Ms. KING-HINDS. Mr. Speaker, my district, the Commonwealth of the 
Northern Mariana Islands, is incredibly far from this Chamber, nearly 
twice as far from Washington, D.C., as Moscow, Russia.
  Yet, the distance between the Northern Mariana Islands and Washington 
is

[[Page H3466]]

not measured only in miles. In many ways, our people are also living 
with systems and conditions decades behind the rest of our country. 
Power infrastructure built over 40 years ago struggles to stay online. 
Water systems built generations ago are failing under the weight of 
time. Long before Super Typhoon Sinlaku struck our islands this year, 
our economy was already under extraordinary strain.
  Tourism had not recovered. Businesses were closing. Families were 
leaving. Air service was shrinking. Government revenues were 
collapsing.
  Mr. Speaker, this did not happen in a vacuum. For decades, Federal 
policies toward the territories, while often well-intentioned, have too 
often operated as barriers instead of bridges to long-term 
economic sufficiency.

  One-size-fits-all Federal policies may work on the mainland, but they 
do not work for small, remote-island economies in the middle of the 
Pacific Ocean.
  When transportation policies fail to account for isolation, we pay 
more. When healthcare systems fail to account for remoteness, people 
leave. When economic policies fail to account for the fact that tourism 
is our customer base, entire industries collapse.
  When Federal systems are built around the assumption that every 
community has the same market access and the same economic flexibility, 
places like the Northern Mariana Islands are left trying to survive 
under rules that were never truly designed for us.
  Then, Super Typhoon Sinlaku arrived.
  Mr. Speaker, we are now weeks into a territory-wide recovery 
emergency across Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. More than 5,000 residents 
have already registered for FEMA individual assistance. Nearly half of 
surveyed households suffered major or catastrophic housing damage.
  Entire islands lost power. Water systems failed. Hospitals, schools, 
sports, airports, and government facilities were forced into emergency 
operations.
  While national media attention has already begun moving on, the 
people living this reality did not have the luxury of changing the 
channel because, for us, this is not a headline. This is home.
  Thankfully, recovery is happening, but, Mr. Speaker, disasters do not 
create weaknesses out of nowhere. They expose the weakness that already 
exists. When a community has spent years operating at the edge, even a 
single storm can push entire systems toward failure.
  The Indo-Pacific is often discussed through the lens of strategic 
competition and force projection, but national resilience in the 
Pacific also depends on whether American communities in the region 
remain economically and socially viable.
  A collapsing utility system is a national security issue. A 
collapsing transportation system is a national security issue. The 
inability of American territories to sustain population, workforce, and 
economic activity in a strategically important region is a national 
security issue.
  If we are serious about maintaining a durable American presence in 
the Indo-Pacific, then we must also be serious about the long-term 
viability of the American communities already living there.
  In the coming weeks, I will be working with my colleagues, Federal 
agencies, and the administration on proposals aimed at addressing the 
underlying vulnerabilities this disaster has exposed because we cannot 
simply rebuild to what existed before. We must build systems that are 
stronger, more flexible, and actually designed to give communities like 
ours a chance to survive and grow.
  Mr. Speaker, at the beginning, I mentioned that the Northern Mariana 
Islands live a day ahead of the rest of the country. Sometimes, it also 
feels like communities like mine experience America's future first.
  What happens when infrastructure ages beyond sustainability? What 
happens when economic systems become too fragile to absorb disruption? 
What happens when communities lose the flexibility to respond to their 
own realities because the systems governing them have become too 
distant and too rigid?
  In the Northern Mariana Islands, those pressures arrive earlier and 
more visibly because we are small, remote, and heavily dependent on 
decisions that are made here, but the lesson is not unique to the 
Pacific. A country as large and diverse as the United States cannot 
remain strong if every community is treated as though it faces the same 
conditions, the same constraints, and the same path forward.

                              {time}  1115

  Recovery is not only about debris removal and emergency response. It 
is about whether American communities still have a future once the 
cameras leave and the attention moves on. For the people of the 
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands that question is 
immediate. It is urgent, and it deserves the attention of Congress.

                          ____________________