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Senate shelves House’ submerged land bill
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Posted on May 11 2006
The Senate has voted to shelve a House joint resolution containing a “mixed” message about the submerged lands bill that is pending before the U.S. Congress.
Senate President Joseph Mendiola said the upper chamber filed H.J.R. 15-4 during yesterday’s session on Tinian.
He said the Senate would introduce its own proposal on the issue.
Right now, he said that the Senate agrees that “if there’s a bill for submerged lands, we will support it.”
Two bills—S.1831 and H.R. 4255—were recently introduced in Congress, which aim to grant the CNMI control over three miles of submerged lands.
This came following the defeat of the CNMI in the U.S. Supreme Court over control of all its submerged lands.
A week ago, the House adopted joint resolution 15-4, which “respectfully requests that the Congress of the U.S. enact S. 1831 and H.R. 4255 bills.” The resolution was introduced by minority leader Arnold I. Palacios.
The House leadership, through Rep. Absalon Waki, voted to insert a clause that essentially calls for the CNMI’s control of its 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
“The further expansion of this three-mile exclusive economic zone to 200 miles will provide a valuable natural resource to the people of the CNMI in order to better contribute to the political union between their islands and the greater American society,” said the amendment.
The House’ final version reflects the position of the CNMI’s top elected leaders.
Early on, Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio disclosed that Gov. Benigno R. Fitial asked the U.S. Senate not to pass the bill, since the local government would prefer negotiating with the federal government for a bigger lot.
Tenorio said that he is for the passage of the bill, believing that it would be better to have three miles of submerged lands than nothing at all.
Meantime, Mendiola said that he supports a 200- mile EEZ “if we can get it.”
“I’m also in support of whatever we can get” at this time.
