{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://sablan.house.gov/press-release/president-signs-nmi-submerged-lands-bill-law", "President signs NMI submerged lands bill into law", "2013-09-18", "2013", "2013-09", "Independent", "Senate", "MP", "Gregorio Sablan", "S001177", "sablan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "President Obama has signed into law S. 256, conveying to the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands the submerged lands surrounding the islands extending three geographical miles outward from the coastline and rescheduling minimum wage increases.\u00a0 The bill becomes one of only 36 that have become law during the President\u2019s second term of office.\u00a0 By this time in his first term Congress had passed 181 bills that received the Presidential signature.\nCongressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, who represents the Northern Mariana Islands, expressed his gratitude to the President:\nI am very grateful to President Obama for signing S. 256 into law.\u00a0 Legislation conveying submerged lands was the very first bill I introduced, as the Northern Mariana Islands first representative in Congress, in February 2009.\u00a0 Now, after unanimous votes approving the submerged lands conveyance in the House of Representatives in 2009, 2011, and 2013, and a final unanimous consent agreement in the Senate earlier this year, the bill has finally become law.\nThe people of the Northern Mariana Islands have always believed that the lands and waters surrounding our islands, which for millennia our ancestors used and preserved, belonged to us.\u00a0 A federal court ruling in 2005 said otherwise, requiring that the lands be conveyed by Congress.\u00a0 Now that S. 256 has become law, the lands can become ours again.\nI want also to say thank you, again, to Senators Ron Wyden and Lisa Murkowski, who introduced S. 256 in this Congress at my request.\u00a0 Originating the bill in the Senate with bipartisan sponsorship, certainly helped to win Senate passage, which had always been the stumbling block for the bill.\u00a0 I also appreciate the cooperation of House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings and his Democratic counterpart Ranking Member Peter DeFazio for helping find time this month on a very crowded legislative schedule to win the fourth and final unanimous vote in the House that sent the bill to the President for his action.\nNorthern Mariana Islands Representative Anthony T. Benavente (IR-Precinct 3), who is in Washington this week for a series of meetings with federal officials, congratulated Sablan on the legislative success.\u00a0 \u201cThe return of these lands to CNMI ownership is truly an accomplishment,\u201d Benavente said.\u00a0 \u201cI am very glad that I could be here with Congressman Sablan when he received the news from the White House.\u201d\u00a0 Benavente chairs the Standing Committee on Natural Resources, which will have responsibility for many of the decisions about the use and protection of the seabed that S.\u00a0256 allows to be now handed over to the island government.\nIn addition to the conveyance of the Northern Mariana Islands offshore lands, S.\u00a0256 also defers increases in the minimum wage in the Northern Marianas.\u00a0 The minimum wage is now scheduled to reach the federal level in 2018.\nAlong with S. 256, the President signed into law today S.\u00a0130, conveying land to the Powell Recreation District in Wyoming; S.\u00a0157, authorizing certain energy projects in Alaska\u2019s Denali National Park; S.\u00a0304, conveying 67 acres of Federal land to the State of Mississippi; and S.\u00a0459, modifying the boundary of the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site in South Dakota.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://sablan.house.gov/press-release/president-signs-nmi-submerged-lands-bill-law"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.296273898333311, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}