[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9225]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                   THE NORTHERN MARIANAS DELEGATE ACT

  (Mr. UNDERWOOD asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, the House prides itself on being the 
House of the people and all of the people, and, indeed, all Americans 
are represented here, most fully through representatives, some 435, and 
the rest, somewhat, through delegates, numbering five. But there is one 
group of Americans that is not represented at all, and those are the 
people of the Northern Marianas.
  Today, I am reintroducing the Northern Marianas Delegate Act, an Act 
to provide for a nonvoting delegate to the House of Representatives to 
represent the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas. It is important 
that the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas be accorded 
representation in Congress, not just for fair and just representation 
of an American community, whose interests are directly affected by the 
actions of Congress, but more importantly, for what the people of the 
CNMI can contribute to the Nation through their delegate. A delegate 
for the Northern Marianas will advance their cause and work to resolve 
situations and conditions as they develop, not subsequently.
  We should leave no other citizens behind or alienate them from a 
lawmaking and policymaking process. Perpetual denial of a delegate for 
the CNMI is a denial of the basic right to represent oneself.

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