SUPER TYPHOON SINLAKU RECOVERY IN NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS

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Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 82 (Thursday, May 14, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 82 (Thursday, May 14, 2026)] [House] [Pages H3465-H3466] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] SUPER TYPHOON SINLAKU RECOVERY IN NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS (Ms. King-Hinds of Northern Mariana Islands was recognized to address the House for 5 minutes.) Ms. KING-HINDS. Mr. Speaker, my district, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, is incredibly far from this Chamber, nearly twice as far from Washington, D.C., as Moscow, Russia. Yet, the distance between the Northern Mariana Islands and Washington is [[Page H3466]] not measured only in miles. In many ways, our people are also living with systems and conditions decades behind the rest of our country. Power infrastructure built over 40 years ago struggles to stay online. Water systems built generations ago are failing under the weight of time. Long before Super Typhoon Sinlaku struck our islands this year, our economy was already under extraordinary strain. Tourism had not recovered. Businesses were closing. Families were leaving. Air service was shrinking. Government revenues were collapsing. Mr. Speaker, this did not happen in a vacuum. For decades, Federal policies toward the territories, while often well-intentioned, have too often operated as barriers instead of bridges to long-term economic sufficiency. One-size-fits-all Federal policies may work on the mainland, but they do not work for small, remote-island economies in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. When transportation policies fail to account for isolation, we pay more. When healthcare systems fail to account for remoteness, people leave. When economic policies fail to account for the fact that tourism is our customer base, entire industries collapse. When Federal systems are built around the assumption that every community has the same market access and the same economic flexibility, places like the Northern Mariana Islands are left trying to survive under rules that were never truly designed for us. Then, Super Typhoon Sinlaku arrived. Mr. Speaker, we are now weeks into a territory-wide recovery emergency across Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. More than 5,000 residents have already registered for FEMA individual assistance. Nearly half of surveyed households suffered major or catastrophic housing damage. Entire islands lost power. Water systems failed. Hospitals, schools, sports, airports, and government facilities were forced into emergency operations. While national media attention has already begun moving on, the people living this reality did not have the luxury of changing the channel because, for us, this is not a headline. This is home. Thankfully, recovery is happening, but, Mr. Speaker, disasters do not create weaknesses out of nowhere. They expose the weakness that already exists. When a community has spent years operating at the edge, even a single storm can push entire systems toward failure. The Indo-Pacific is often discussed through the lens of strategic competition and force projection, but national resilience in the Pacific also depends on whether American communities in the region remain economically and socially viable. A collapsing utility system is a national security issue. A collapsing transportation system is a national security issue. The inability of American territories to sustain population, workforce, and economic activity in a strategically important region is a national security issue. If we are serious about maintaining a durable American presence in the Indo-Pacific, then we must also be serious about the long-term viability of the American communities already living there. In the coming weeks, I will be working with my colleagues, Federal agencies, and the administration on proposals aimed at addressing the underlying vulnerabilities this disaster has exposed because we cannot simply rebuild to what existed before. We must build systems that are stronger, more flexible, and actually designed to give communities like ours a chance to survive and grow. Mr. Speaker, at the beginning, I mentioned that the Northern Mariana Islands live a day ahead of the rest of the country. Sometimes, it also feels like communities like mine experience America's future first. What happens when infrastructure ages beyond sustainability? What happens when economic systems become too fragile to absorb disruption? What happens when communities lose the flexibility to respond to their own realities because the systems governing them have become too distant and too rigid? In the Northern Mariana Islands, those pressures arrive earlier and more visibly because we are small, remote, and heavily dependent on decisions that are made here, but the lesson is not unique to the Pacific. A country as large and diverse as the United States cannot remain strong if every community is treated as though it faces the same conditions, the same constraints, and the same path forward. {time} 1115 Recovery is not only about debris removal and emergency response. It is about whether American communities still have a future once the cameras leave and the attention moves on. For the people of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands that question is immediate. It is urgent, and it deserves the attention of Congress. ____________________

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