Speech #1100124196

And I want to thank all of the Members on both sides of the aisle. Since the early 1990s. Ive tried to bring legislation to the floor of this Congress to reform the abusive labor practices and the broken immigration policies of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. an American territory in the Pacific. I sought these changes so that we could put a stop to the welldocumented and widespread abuse of poor men and women in the garment and tourism industry in the CNMI and to better secure Americas borders. But for more than a decade. a lobbyist by the name of Jack Abramoff joined thenMajority Leader Tom Delay and others here in Congress to block my reform efforts. even though they passed on a bipartisan basis in the Senate and in the Senate committee twice.