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Submerged land bill in Congress draws support
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Posted on Mar 05 2009
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a joint resolution supporting a bill now pending in the U.S. Congress allowing the CNMI control over 3 miles of its 200-mile submerged lands or exclusive economic zone.
House Joint Resolution 16-24, introduced by Speaker Arnold I. Palacios, supports and advocates the passage of H.R. 934 introduced on Feb. 10 by Delegate Gregorio “Kilili” C. Sablan in the U.S. Congress.
H.R. 934 conveys to the CNMI the submerged lands surrounding each of the Northern Mariana Islands out to 3 miles from the coastline.
“This bill, if enacted into law, will provide the CNMI with the title, rights and interest of the United States in lands permanently or periodically covered by tidal waters for a 3-mile area extending from the shores of the CNMI,” House Joint Resolution 16-24 said.
Local lawmakers also said the CNMI may benefit from this pending legislation entitling it access to this 3-mile territorial sea and exclusive economic zone in its surrounding waters.
The House resolution goes to the Senate for action.
Sablan’s H.R. 934 is co-sponsored by Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo and Rep. Jeff Flake, (AZ).
Last week, the bill took its first step toward passage at the first hearing of the new Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans, and Wildlife.
During the public hearing on the bill, witnesses, including Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and the governors of Guam and American Samoa, officials of the Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Council and the U.S. Department of the Interior, supported it.
In 2005, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the CNMI did not own the submerged lands. The ruling angered many people in the Marianas, who believed the court was wrong.
