Date: 1988-10-03
Speaker: DE LUGO (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker. most Members know that it is the practice to combine a number of relatively noncontroversial proposals regarding the insular areas of or associated with the United States Into an omnibus bill each Congress. In the past. these acts have provided essential assistance to the insular areas and rationalized the treatment of the insular areas under law. Although they have been relatively noncontroversial. these acts have addressed many Insular needs that would otherwise be overlooked. The very serious issues involved in the Palau compact of Free Association legislation have preoccupied the attention to insular matters of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs and our counterpart committee on the other side of the Capitol this Congress. The administrations recent decision to support the fundamental provisions of the Palau resolution that I have sponsored along with 64 other Members has. however. made passage of an omnibus insular areas bill a possibility this year. S. 1047. as It would be amended. includes provisions approved by the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee late last year as well as other provisions that would address a number of needs that should be acted upon. The subcommittee In Insular and International Affairs. which I chair. developed this legislation in consultation with the minority. insular representatives. other committees. and both other branches of Government. The bill would not have a significant budget impact and the administration has cleared Its provisions in almost all respects. At this point. I would like to acknowledge the cooperation I have received from the subcommittees ranking Republican. our colleague Boa LAGOMARSINO. I would also like to note the contributions made to this legislation by. the distinguished Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico. JAIME FUSTER. the able Delegate of Guam. BEN BLAz. and our former colleague from American Samoa. Fofo Sunia. who did so much for his people while a Member of the House. Let mf now outline what this legislation would accomplish. Section 1 would be the acts short title: The Omnibus Insular Areas Act of 1988. Section 2 would define the Federated States of Micronesia: the Marshall Islands. and Palau. when and if the Compact of Free Association with Palau goes into effect as freely associated states. Free association is one of three future political statuses for a territory approved by the United Nations. The others are integration into a country. which in the case of our Nation would be statehood. and independence. Free association itself means that the State involved possesses sovereignty but has freely agreed to let another State exercise some aspects of that sovereignty. In the case of the United States free association with the Federated States and the Marshallsand possibl) Palau in the futurethis consists primarily of the Islands being selfgoverning in all matters other than those affecting security. for which the United States retains responsibility. The freely associated states are currently eligible to participate in the essential air service program. The U.S. agreement with them applying the program expires later this month. Section 3 would authorize it to be extended 10 years. Air service over the vast expanses of the Pacific is an economic and social lifeline for the peoples of remote islands. It is important in terms of the U.S. defense responsibilities provided for under the compacts. During the period of U.S. trusteeship administration of the freely associated states. Federal Judges would serve temporarily as judges of the courts of the trust territory. This practice provided a full complement of Judges not practical to maintain in small island communities. Officials of the freely associated states believe that this assistance is still needed. even though the states are selfgoverning. The Judicial Conference agrees and has proposed the basis of section 4. This section would authorize the temporary assignment of judges of the Ninth Judicial Circuit to freely associate state courts upon the request of the states. It is assumed that such assignments will be arranged in a manner consistent with constitutional requirements of both the United States and the state involved. In the case of the United States. this does not require that the arrangements be made by the executive branch in light of the foreign policy powers of the President. To suggest that it should would be to propose the executive. a political branch. should encroach upon the independence of the judiciary. The governmenttogovernment contacts required can be satiFIed by contacts between judic!aries. It may be helpful. tcv..cr. for there to be executivetoexecutive understandings reached concerning this assistance. The language provides for this. No one Is more responsible for the provisions of section 4 than the newest Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. the Honorable APnthony M. Kennedy. He developed these provisions as Chairman of the Pacific Territories Committee of the Judicial Conference. I am delighted that he has asked to stay on as chairman of this committee. He Is especially understanding of the needs of the unique judicial relationships that the United States has with the insular areas. He is dedicated to preserving the rights of the powerless peoples of the insular areas. Administrative office of the U.S. Courts Counsel Christy E. Massie also helped develop these provisions. I appreciate her contributions to them. Finally. I would like to note that the Committee on the Judiciary has an obvious interest in this matter. This legislation would not be possible without the cooperation of the very distinguished chairman. whom we shall all miss in the next Congress. our colleague PETER RODImO. The Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Courts. Civil Liberties. and the Administration of Justice. our colleague BoB KASTENMEIER. also contributed to it. Section 5 would authorize the agricultural and food programs for the peoples of Bikini and Enewetak Atolls that were authorized by the compact of Free Association Act to be provided by a United States or Marshallese contractor through a grant to the government of the Marshall Islands. It would also authorize the food programs for the peoples of Rongelap and Utrik atolls to continue to be provided on the same terms that apply to the programs for the peoples of Bikini and Enewetak. I understand that some administration officials object to the continuation of these programs for the peoples of Rongelap and Utrik. However. since the President has just approved the fiscal year 1989 Interior Appropriations bill and this law would also continue these programs. this objec. tIon is not persuasive. This section is Included to ensure that the programs are continued for the peoples of Rongelap and Utrik beyond fiscal year 1989. Section 6 would authorize the President to agree with the freely associated states to continue to have the United States regulate the distribution of drugs to the states or to treat the states as foreign countries for the purposes of such distribution if they agree to international conventions on distribution. This provision was proposed by the very able President of the Senate of Palau. Joshua Koshiba. He recognized that a freely associated state of Palau might not have the resources or expertise to arrange for proper and safe acquisition of medicines. Subsection (b) of section 6 provides for submission to Congress of agreements reached under this section. Section 7 would provide assistance to the Northern Marinanas College requested by the representatives In Washington of the commonwealth. the Honorable Froilan Tenorio and the able president of the college. Agnes McPhetres. Subsection (a) would make the college a Federal depository so that it will be eligible to receive all Federal publications. Subsection (b) would authorize the college to receive the same endowment authorized for the land grant colleges in the territories. $3 million. The Omnibus Insular Areas Act of 1986 made the college a land grant institution. Although that law made the college eligible for other benefits of October . 1988 land grant status. it did not provide for this endowment. This provision would correct that omission. Unlike the States. the waste water systems of the insular areas are far from developed. Insular governments are hardpressed financially to bring these systems up to Federal standards. The lack of adequate systems poses health hazards and is an impediment to economic development. Special assistance and flexibility in applying requirements is clearly warranted. The revolving fund concept o- financing waste water projects s one that does not make sense in the insular areas because of the greater level of need I have noted and because of the structure of insular governments. Insular governments generally develop waste water systems on an insularwide rather than a local government basis. Section 8 would authorize insular governments to continue to treat waste water treatment funds as grantsif the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency approvesrather than as capitalization for revolving funds. Omnibus insular areas acts in 1980. 1983. and 1984 have all intended to waive requirements for insular governments to spend funds in order to have any Federal program or project apply to or take place in the islands. These acts are built upon waiver authority contained in Omnibus Insular Areas Acts of 1977 and 1978. The current law requires the waiver of contribution requirements by American Samoa. Guam. the Northern Marlana Islands. and the Virgin Islands of the first $200.000 of such a requirement per project or program by every Federal agency in each instance where such a requirement could be applied. The primary reason for the waiver is to ensure that insular areas are not prevented from participating In programs or that projects are not prevented because of the fiscal Inability of the insular government to make a contribution. The burden of having to make such a contributionwhether on a matching or any other basisis intended to be alleviated. An additional reason for the waiver is that such a large proportion of insular budgets are made up of direct or indirect Federal support that the purposes of local contribution requirements are often contradicted in insular circumstances. In spite of this. from time to time agencies misunderstand Congress intent. Some have tried to Interpret the waiver as not applying to their programs or projects for one reason or another. One reason given has been that the local contribution requirements involved were not really "matching" requirements. Another is that the waiver would shift costs to the Federal Government and that it was not intended to apply to openended state plan programs. such as the Child Support Enforcement Program. Congress has had to act to clarify that the waiver applies to specific pro. grams. as it did in the Case of Corps of Engineers projects. It should not. however. continue to have to do this to clarify intent. Although the budgetary impact of this waiver is nonexistent or slight. the intent is that the waiver be applied acrosstheboard for all projects and programs regardless of the cost. The intent of section 9 is that any requirements for insular spending under any Federal program or project be waived to the extent of $200.000 annually. Let us hope that we do not have to revisit this issue again. except for the purpose of adjusting the amount of the waiver. Section 10 would amend the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands in two respects. One amendment would provide for the President to appoint the U.S. Marshal for the Virgin Islands. The President appoints U.S. Marshals in other places in the Nation. there Is no apparent reason that the Attorney General appoints the Marshal in the territory that I represent. I understand that some administration officials object to this amendment and want the Attorney General to continue to appoint U.S. Marshals in the Virgin Islands and appoint all other U.S. Marshals as well. The U.S. Marshal for the Virgin Islands should be equivalent to that for any other part of the Nation. The objection Is too persuasive. The other amendment would authorize the U.S. District Court for the Virgin Islands to sit anywhere in the territory. The requirement in current law that the courts division for St. Thomas and St. John only sit in Charlotte Amalie and the division for St. Croix only sit in Christiansted is anachronistic and unnecessarily limiting. It could prevent construction of Federal buildings in the most appropriate location. In 1980. Congress directed the transfer of 927 acres at Guams main port. Cabras Island. from the Navy to the territory to assist in the ports economic development. Unfortunately. the property was not developed because of the requirement that the territory pay any proceeds received from the sale or lease of the property to private parties over to the Federal Government. The Omnibus Insular Areas Act of 1984 amended this requirement to authorize Guam to use up to 30 percent of the proceeds today for development costs. Unfortunately. development still has not been able to occur. Section 11 would amend the limitation on the amount of the proceeds Guam may use .for development costsand does not have to pay to the Federal Governmentto 50 percent. Delegate BLAz has worked out this amendment with the sponsor of the limitation. Chairman JACK BRooKs of the Committee on Government Operations. We hope that it will result in development of the property. The provisions that I have described do not include the Senates purpose in passing the legislation. It was to clarify that certain residents of the Northern Mariana Islands are U.S. citizens by virtue of Public Law 94241. That law approved the covenant to make the islands a commonwealth in union with the United States. I agree that the people Involved are intended to be U.S. citizens. This was made clear at a hearing I conducted in May 1987 on an administration bill to make them citizens. I also believe that the administrations refusal to recognize many of these people as citizens was unfair and a disservice to the Nation. In making this criticism. I want to recognize that there were some in the administration who tried to correct this problem. It has. however. been corrected by the wise decisions of the thoughtful judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. Alfred Laureta. He has ordered that U.S. citizenship be recognized. S. 1047 was referred to the Judiciary Committee as well as the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee. I agreed with Chairman ROMANO MAZ70LI of the Subcommittee on Immigration. Refugees. and International law that. although it was wellintended. the bill should not be needed. Thus. the Senatepassed legislation is just being used as a vehicle for the other provisions that I have described. I appreciate the cooperation of Chairman RODINO in this respect and want to recognize that consideration of this legislation is without prejudice to the interests of the Judiciary Committee. Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.