Although all members of the U.S. House of Representatives are aware it is their duty to pass and reject laws on behalf of their constituents and for the benefit of the United States at large, most, if not all, focus their efforts, as least in part, on bringing federal projects to their district. “Bringing home the bacon,” as the saying goes. When Newt Gingrich was the House speaker, his district in Georgia got more federal money than any other district. The Army Corps of Engineers even built a lake there and his pals in real estate suddenly had water front property for sale. Rep. Don Young of Alaska brought home $941 million, which included a project to build a bridge from Ketchikan (pop. 8,000) to the island of Gravina (pop. 50), commonly referred to as the Bridge to Nowhere.
Both Gingrich and Young became unpopular in some circles. The NMI rep. will never suffer in that way. Federal projects? Federal jobs? Federal money? “No,” says he (or she), we don’t want them.
Imagine Californians saying, for example, we don’t want a national park (or monument), we want to manage, let’s say, Yosemite ourselves. We do not want federal jobs or restrictions or funding and we certainly do not want foreign tourism. Imaging them saying that its okay if they can’t police the area, and foreigners poach the animals and log the trees, as foreign commercial fishing interests can around the Northern Islands in the CNMI (so local control really just means being taken advantage of). Imagine Californians saying that’s okay because someday some of them may want to hunt and log there, even though there are only a few who possibly could, just as now only a few boats in the CNMI can even get up to the proposed monument to fish. Imagine Californian hunters saying we don’t want a protected breading ground so we can hunt in nearby areas, as a ocean monument would provide for fishing. Imagine Californians saying we don’t want tourist money and we certainly don’t want the federal government helping us get it and we do not want our natural resources protected. Who can imagine such a thing? Well, apparently those who represent the people of the CNMI can.
So while other members of the house of representative in Washington, D.C. including American Samoa and Guam, will be screaming for a piece of the tax dollar pie and cutting deals and asking for the feds to do more in their little district, spend more, give more, the CNMI rep. will evidently be asking for nothing and getting the same. But he may get invited to a lot of cool parties, so that’s nice.
FRED HOVNATON
San Jose, Saipan
