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US Senate to take up submerged lands bill ‘soon’
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Posted on Jun 05 2012
Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan (Ind-MP) said his bill conveying 3 miles of submerged lands to the CNMI will “soon” be taken up by the U.S. Senate, seven months since the U.S. House of Representatives passed it by a unanimous vote.
“The submerged lands bill, HR 670, will soon move in the Senate and I’m hoping the president will sign it into law,” Sablan said in an interview.
He said they reserved the bill number “670,” the CNMI’s area code, for the submerged lands legislation. HR 670, he said, provides equity to the CNMI people because the Northern Marianas is the only one among U.S. coastal areas that does not control its own submerged lands.
The Fitial administration also supports the bill. Gov. Benigno R. Fitial had said the CNMI should be afforded the same rights granted to all coastal American states under the Submerged Lands Act, which includes 27 percent of all federal rents, royalties, and revenues paid annually to coastal states and full right to 3 miles of submerged lands.
Sablan said he plans to attach to this submerged lands bill his other bill that would amend the definition of “state” to include the CNMI as among those eligible to apply for the State Trade and Export Promotion, or STEP, grant.
In March, the U.S. Small Business Administration cancelled a STEP grant that awarded the CNMI $1.022 million, after it determined that the CNMI is not eligible to apply for such a grant.
