Date: 1985-12-11
Speaker: DE LUGO (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. the Compact of Free Association has been the subject of indepth review. debate. and amendment. I believe the level of consideration given the document is a tribute to this body. In particular. I conunend the chairman of the Interior and Insular Affairs Subcommittee on Public Lands. JOHN SEIBERLING. for the leadership and the commitment he has shown during this process. I also commend the chairman of the Interior and Insular Affairs. MO UDALL. and the minority leadership of that committee. specifically the gentleman from Alaska. DON YOUNG. and the gentleman from California. BOB LAGOMARSINO. Their efforts to make this an acceptable and workable agreement have been outstanding. I particularly wish to commend the distinguished chairman of the Ways and Means Committee for his concern that the tax and trade provisions of the compact should not have a damaging effect on the U.S. Insular areas. and for his insistence that the U.S. insular areas not be placed in any less favorable position than those areas that are not under the American flag. I also thank and commend the gentleman from Nebraska. Mr. BEREUTER. for his thoughtful analysis. his concerns for the U.S. territories. and his welcomed advice throughout the consideration of this compact. But especially. Mr. Speaker. I wish to commend the gentleman from American Samoa for his statesmanship on behalf of this Nation and on behalf of the people of American Samoa. As originally submitted to the Congress. the compact would have brought about serious damage to the economy of American Samoa. But through his tireless efforts. he was able to work out an equitable solution that will protect the interests of all concerned. His success in this effort is a credit to his integrity. to the people he represents. and another indication of the respect that he has earned in this Chamber. He well deserves that respect and I laud him for his important work on this compact. The legislation before you today improves upon the compact as sent to this body by the administration in a number of important ways. The amendments reflect greater sensitivity to actual conditions in the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands than did the original document. Significantly. as amended. the compact also balances the countrys interest in the economic health of its territories and commonwealths against its interest in the economic health and ultimate selfreliance of what would be the freely associated states. Unfortunately. the 14 years of negotiation on the original document had occurred in a vacuum relative to the impact on the U.S. insular areas. The leadership of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee understands the delicate balance of economic incentives that exist for the U.S. territories and commonwealths. and the need to modify the compact in order to allow these areas to continue to attract the narrow margin of offshore industry that responds to these incentives was carefully considered. As the Representative from one of the U.S. insular areas. I sincerely appreciate the efforts of these gentlemen. I also want to commend the Interior Committee staff who worked so long and diligently on. this lcg.rlation. In particular. on the majority side I commend Jeff Farrow. Pat Krause. Lee McElvain. Stan Sloss. and Roy Jones. On the minority side. I commetid Manase Mancur. and especially. even though he is now retired. Tom Dunmire. whose encyclopedic knowledge of the area and his sensitivity to all the issues involved were invaluable. especially during the initial consideration of the legislation.