The United States House of Representatives today passed a bill conferring submerged lands to the Commonwealth and delaying two year's worth of increases in the federal minimum wage. S.256 passed 415-0. The bill previously passed the U.S. Senate and now heads to President Barack Obama's desk.
This law, once signed and enacted, opens the most biological diverse region of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument to commercial fishing until such time that the Commonwealth government extends the constitutional protections for the islands to the newly conferred territorial seas.
Government leaders who have called for co-management now have to show they were serious by implementing legislation to protect this important area. There is nothing to co-manage until such time the area is protected.
The Friends of the Monument called on Delegate Kilili to include co-management language in his bill; the call went unheeded.
The Friends of the Monument called on Delegate Kilili to include co-management language in his bill; the call went unheeded.
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