— —_— ooo ~ Under these ciramstances, the Administration strong urges Geletion of section 104 as duplicative and amecesst’, te a@part, from the consideration; described above, we think the section as drafted contains inherent ambiguities. If the section is to he construed to mean that the legal eligibility of the Trust Territtry for Federal programs shall net cease without congressional approval, then section 104 is a restatement of existing law and is unnecessary. if, aoe other hand, this re construed to mean that Trust Territory participation in appli e, discretionary, Federal programs may not cease without the approval of Congress, then we strongly oppose the section. As of Decenber 30, 1977, the Trust Territory was legally eligible for 482 Federal programs; it participated in 166. We think the Trust Territory Government and this Department ought to retain the authority to decide which discretionary programs should be implemented in the Trust Territory, amd which ones should not. Section 201 Section 201 provides that the Department of the Interior shall pay the salary and expenses of the government comptroller of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Administration supports this section. The salary ard expenses of the governmént comptroller of Gia are paid by this Department and currently the Northern Mariana Islands are under his jurisdiction. We reconmend the specific inclusicn of the Northern Mariana Islands in the statute that extended the authority of the comptroller to the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (48 U.S.C. 168lb). Present application of existing law would not change, but an amendment would insure continued application of the statute to the Northern Mariana Islands (which will become a part of the United States when it assumes fully the status of the Conmorwealth of the Northern Marianas) at such time as the trusteeship over Micronesia is terminated. We recommend the following amendment to the Act of June 30, 1954, as amended by the Act of September 21, 1973 (48 U.S.C. 168kb): - + “TA ame (1) strike the words. "government of the Trust-Territory of the Pacific Islands” wherever they appear and insert in lieu thereof the words “governments of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands ar the Northern Mariana Islands,"; (2) after the words “High Conmissioner of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands” insert the words “or . Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, as the case may be, "3 = - : . — we . ie (3) wherever the words "High Commissioner" appear and are “not followed by the words “of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands" insert the words "or Governor as the case may be,"; and (4) after the words "District Court of Guam” insert the words "or District Court of the Northern Mariana Islands, as the case may be*. a % wees ee 1 averse 4 er ‘1, ae ‘ talon